Pervert used Minecraft to groom young boy by luring him on to Snapchat and showering him with money.

Dad shares how he was horrified to discover his son, 12, was groomed through the computer game Minecraft.

The parents, who cannot be named for legal reasons, spoke out after pervert Adam Isaac, 22, admitted eight child sex offences, reports The Mirror.

Isaac, pleaded guilty to two counts of causing or inciting child prostitution or pornography.

He also pleaded guilty to one count of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, and causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity – in relation to a teenage boy.

The father said his son was one of two victims who had been groomed online.

The pervert used Minecraft to lure his victims onto other platforms – including Skype and Snapchat – to groom them, Wales Online reports.

Minecraft is a game which allows players to construct things from 3D blocks.

The twelve year old had a talent for programming and coding, spent a lot of time playing the online multiplayer game.

Dad said, “We’re proactive parents so we were very open about people on the internet and what they want. He was very aware of the dangers.”

The 12 year old was part of a “faction” on Minecraft – a group that plays together online in order to protect their bases and raid others.

Players are able to have limited communication on the game, so in order to plan secret “attacks” on other factions they move onto other servers such as Skype.

Often, the same user names are used on different platforms so it is easier to connect with each other.

That is how the pervert struck.

On January 16, 2016, the parents made a chilling discovery.

“We were going up to bed – our son was already asleep. That was the time we used to tuck him up and go through his messages, It was then that I discovered he’d been talking to this man.

“I felt something was wrong.”

He had been talking to Isaac since October. The chats were initially related to Minecraft but then they spotted a change in Isaac’s language.

“He started to talk as if he was trying to build a relationship with the boy. He was saying things like ‘you’re so good at Minecraft, you’re my best friend on here’. He was just really trying to build him up, really laying it on.

“He was a 12-year-old boy at the time, he was vulnerable.

“He would have never seen it coming and he never stood a chance.”

The dad’s investigations also revealed that Isaac was sending money to his son through Paypal.

The 12 year old would thank Isaac for buying him things on Minecraft, for no reason, and then Isaac would say “there is something you can do to repay me.”

Dad revealed, “I kept reading the messages and it increasingly looked like my son was being groomed. We saw some chats where the word masturbation was used.

“Fortunately they never met in person. But Isaac made him watch things on camera, he would send my boy pictures of himself. He sent him links to pornography, saying ‘watch this’.

“And 12-year-olds are curious.”

As Isaac conducted much of the abuse over video, there was little trace of the exchanges.

They managed to identify Isaac via the payments he made over Paypal, as in one payment there was reference to his name and address.

They went straight to the police.

“We were absolutely devastated. It has torn us apart.

“If parents see their child playing happily on computer games they should be aware – even something that seems innocent like Minecraft. Minecraft is innocent – it’s the people on there that are looking for that kind of stuff.

“We were so lucky that we were watching his accounts or we could be sitting here without a son. I’ve no doubt he would have gone further.

“He was fully aware of how old he was – he Skyped him on his 13th birthday.

“The way he got our son to trust him was clever, it was very slow and calculated. He knew exactly what he was doing. He completely appealed to everything a 13-year-old boy who likes computers would want to hear.”

The father’s key advice to other parents is to be alert if their child starts using headphones.

“That’s when it changed and he was able to enter a private world. Parents often don’t let their kids use Facebook or Instagram when they’re young but things like Minecraft are also open to abuse.”

“We just want parents to be aware of the kinds of things people will do. It’s so clever and calculated, There’s always guilt as a parent as to what more we could have done.”

Share your comments below

Image stock photo