A soldier has been jailed for 27 years after a series of online sex offences on ‘approaching 100 victims’ conducted from inside his base.

Austen Fleming’s accommodation at RAF Dishforth was raided by police after a tip off by a child protection centre in the United States.

The Royal Logistics Corps squaddie was then investigated by constabularies from across Britain who identified scores of victims of his ‘sextortion’ scam.

Fleming, 29, posed as an attractive female on social media to lure victims, covertly recording his interactions with teenage boys to use as leverage.

When they refused to send sexually explicit material he threatened to post footage he had already collated to their friends and family.

He also offered PlayStation and Xbox codes in return for pictures which he harvested for exploitation.

Leeds Crown Court heard a 15-year-old boy was so traumatised by Fleming’s threats he attempted to take his own life. Others were left crying and shaking with fear.

Sentencing Fleming, Judge Ray Singh said social media had given him easy access to victims and his ‘depravity knew no bounds’.

The judge went on: ‘There are 61 identified individual victims. There are 27 who have not been identified. So you were approaching nearly 100 victims.

‘Each was a real person, each was a real child, who was abused by you. This is horrific offending involving young children. Your degraded and humiliated your victims.’

Colleagues at the base in North Yorkshire had no idea about his vile secret until the raid. The crimes took place between 2020 and 2023. He was arrested in November 2022.

Fleming’s barrister, Robert Mochrie, told the court most of the offending took place while the defendant was drinking alone in the barracks. The youngest of his victims was aged 10.

The father of one boy said his ‘happy go lucky’ son’s mental health went into significant decline after meeting Fleming online. He said his son blamed himself and ‘never seems happy’.

While the court heard Fleming blackmailed a 15-year-old saying: ‘Send bro or the vids going up.’

Victims were made to take explicit images taken next to sleeping siblings and videos involving family pets. One child vomited when he told his mother what he had been forced to do.

Fleming, of Kilsyth, Lanarkshire, admitted 83 charges including blackmail, causing children to engage in sexual activity and sexually exploiting children. He told police he was ‘struggling with his sexuality’.

His victims were from across the UK. Detective Constable Tom Sutcliffe of the Online Child Abuse Team said: ‘Fleming is clearly a depraved offender who poses a significant danger to young people.

‘He now faces a long time in prison and will be robustly monitored by the authorities for the rest of his life.’