THE mother of a 14-year-old girl alleged to have been the victim of an internet paedophile said she was sickened by the blackmail tactics used against her daughter.

Police believe the girl was one of 42 schoolgirls across the Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells area targeted after a paedophile hacked into a pupil’s e-mail address book.

They say girls aged between nine and 15 were made to perform sexual acts, which were watched via webcam.

An joint investigation by Kent Police and Canadian police has led to the arrest of 21-year-old college student Mark Bedford of Kingston, Ontario.

The woman, named “Dee” by police to mask her real identity, said at a Kent Police press conference that she was “sickened” by what had happened to her daughter.

Police say the girls were dared to pose in front of a webcam in their underwear by a man who then threatened to tell their friends or family what they had done if they did not perform more explicit acts.

She said: “It’s like 'dare or double dare.’ It gets to the point where they have got to go on doing it.

She added “It has got to have mentally scarred these children because even a 15-year-old is still a child.”

Dee was one of the first parents to complain to West Kent Police during the Easter bank holiday. She said: “We had bought my daughter a computer for her birthday and she wanted a webcam.

“Her computer is in her bedroom but she is not locked away. We set it up for her and she went online.”

While Dee was doing some gardening, her daughter went online and thought she was talking to one of her friends.

The 14-year-old told the press conference: “I was asked to flash my bra. I did not do anything because I am not stupid.”

Instead she told her mother, who informed the police.

Dee said: “I think 'paedophile’ came rushing into my brain. I thought: there is something not right about this.”

Bedford has appeared in court in Canada charged with two counts of luring a child using a computer, two counts of possessing child pornography, three of making child pornography, two of distributing it and three counts of extortion.

All the charges relate to alleged offences in Canada. So far no one had been charged in connection with the alleged incidents in Kent.