Two men who coerced vulnerable teenage girls into serious self-harm and then mocked them online have been jailed.
Charlie Johnson, 24, and Prince Singh, 23, wanted their victims to be “scarred for life” after encouraging them to carve names into themselves.
They then shared images of those acts in an online chatroom.
Johnson and Singh were charged in April 2025 with a number of offences relating to two girls, who were 16 and 17 at the time of the offences.
The offences took place throughout 2024 and into January 2025.
Johnson, who was also convicted of physically abusing both girls, was jailed for four years, while Singh was sentenced to two years and nine months.
Sentencing at Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Ruth Downing said the two men were drawn together by their “mutual interest” in encouraging “school girls” to self-harm.
Judge Downing said: “I am of the view that both these men took a deeply unhealthy interest in this idea in encouraging others, young women, inevitably women, to self-harm.”
The judge also described the pair treating their “deliberate planned acts” as a “game”, picking vulnerable victims.
At the sentencing hearing, the two victims spoke about the extreme and long-lasting impacts of their actions.
One of the girls said Johnson, who was in his 20s when they met, “weaponised” her youth, and said she still has “nightmares of the abuse”.
She said: “I was made to feel like everything was my fault, even when he hurt me.”
She added: “Emotionally I felt worthless for a long time, I felt disposable and I even felt guilty that he was facing consequences.”
This case marks the first time defendants have been convicted by jury trial of assisting or encouraging serious self-harm under the Online Safety Act of 2023.
While Singh and others have pleaded guilty to offences of this type, Johnson’s trial was the first time they were tested in court.
The defendants would share “nudes” and self-harm images they received on a Discord group they ran together, the court heard.
The indecent image offences both men are charged with relate to one of the two women.
After contact with Johnson, which began when the victim was 16 and living in a children’s home, Singh began messaging her, giving her “the impression that he cared”, the prosecution said.
Singh revealed his “true views” on the Discord server with Johnson, saying “I’m going to ruin her life” and expressing the desire to leave her “scarred for life”.
He wrote: “Stage one; befriend, stage two; learn the name of school and workplace, stage three; sit back and drink a slush puppy while her life falls to shit.”
Judge Downing said “that really deeply disturbing exchange” which illustrated their intentions behind these acts.
Evidence of the indecent images and self-harm encouragement of girls was found on various devices taken from the defendants’ bedrooms when they were arrested.
These included references to and pictures of other girls who were not involved in the trial, the court heard.
One of the victims told the court on Wednesday that despite the trauma inflicted on her, she is “proud” they had stepped forward.
“We knew we had to say something to stop this happening to other girls in the future,” she said.
Jessica Lunan, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Charlie Johnson and Prince Singh committed devastating acts of violence and coercion against their young vulnerable victims.
“Through online chat rooms, they exploited and preyed upon young girls from different parts of the UK by illegally sharing indecent images of them and encouraging them to commit acts of self-harm.
“Our prosecutors work tirelessly to protect victims and bring offenders to justice. Sharing indecent images of children is a criminal offence, and those who do so will face the full force of the law.”
Johnson was convicted after trial of two counts of encouraging self-harm, two counts of distributing indecent images of a child, along with three counts of assault by beating.
He admitted two counts of making an indecent image, while Singh admitted counts of making and distributing indecent images of a child along with encouraging serious self-harm of one of the victims.
Johnson and Singh each received their custodial sentences for their most serious self-harm count, and concurrent sentences for the other offences.
Both men will serve half of their sentences in custody and will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for five years.
