A football coach who posed as an attractive teenage girl on the internet and tricked several boys into engaging in sex acts on webcam has been convicted.

Calling himself Sarah Sawyer, Kevin Ford, from Rochester, used Facebook to target boys aged 13 to 15 and sent them messages.

Prosecutor Neil Moore told a jury at Maidstone Crown Court: "His aim was to persuade them to use a webcam to perform sexual acts so he could watch.

"However, this was always arranged in a way which meant they couldn't see him. For obvious reasons, they would see he is a [man] and not a girl.

"He sent them pictures of an attractive teenage girl, sometimes naked, pretending they depicted Sarah Sawyer."

Mr Moore said that if boys refused to do Ford's bidding, he used other techniques.

"His aim was to persuade them to use a webcam to perform sexual acts so he could watch..." - Prosecutor Neil Moore

He threatened one boy with posting a video on Facebook he had recorded of him performing a sex act.

Ford, 26, had been employed by Soccer Elite – known as SEFA – based in Maidstone, and affiliated to the Football Association, since November 2011. He lived with his parents in Rose Street.

Mr Moore told jurors that the case involved 12 boys aged 13 to 15, but that only one was prepared to give evidence.

"There is no issue that each one is giving a truthful and accurate account to the police of what happened to them," he said.

"There is no doubt that someone committed each of these offences.

"The only question is: Are you sure it was the defendant who pretended to be Sarah Sawyer?"

The police were contacted after the parent of one victim discovered what was happening.

Mr Moore said Ford's home and work computers and mobile phones were seized, and there was evidence on all of them that linked him to the Sarah Sawyer accounts.

Ford had denied 10 charges of causing a child to engage in sexual activity and two of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity between February and August 2012.

The jury unanimously convicted him of all charges and he was remanded in custody until November 6 when he will be sentenced.

Ford must also sign on to the sex offenders’ register.

Judge Philip Statman praised the jury for its outstanding commitment to the case, adding: "All of you have gone the extra mile.

"What a credit it is to trial by jury that there are people like you in the community prepared to try such a difficult case."