One of Britain's most prolific paedophiles, who posed as teenage girls on social media to get dozens of young boys to send explicit images of themselves and other children, was jailed for 25 years.

Former youth football team coach David Wilson, 36, tricked victims aged between 4 and 14 to send him explicit selfies before blackmailing them into making more extreme videos.

He is thought to have approached more than 5,000 children globally before being arrested by investigators, who had been sent information by Facebook.

Today police chiefs warned the social media giant's plan to introduce end-to-end encryption - a system where only the communicating users can read the messages - could hinder similar investigations in the future.

Appearing at Ipswich Crown Court, Wilson of King's Lynn, Norfolk, was jailed for 25 years after admitting 96 child sex abuse offences against 52 victims.

The court heard Wilson used unregistered phones to approach his victims through social media sites, including Facebook and Instagram.

Pretending to be young girls, Wilson built up trust with his victims before blackmailing them into sending him explicit images.

In some cases, Wilson blackmailed his victims into abusing younger siblings or friends.

Some boys were left suicidal by the abuse.