Posing as a female modeling agent named “Patricia”, the 28-year-old man sent emails to hundreds of girls between the ages of 10- and 12-years-old promising them modeling contracts if they agreed to send him pictures of themselves, the Helsingborgs Dagblad (HD) newspaper reports.

When “Patricia” praised the good looks of an 11-year-old girl from Ängelholm in western Sweden based on a profile picture posted on a popular chat site, the two began corresponding over the internet.

The girl and a friend eventually agreed to take pictures of themselves and send them off to the 28-year-old man, who became increasingly specific with what sort of pictures he wanted.

“You are both really pretty. I need to see how far you’re willing to go,” wrote the man, posing as “Patricia”.

“If you dare, you can take also pictures of yourselves without any panties. Don’t be afraid to take sexy pictures. You can caress your breasts if you want.”

When a relative of one of the girls discovered what sort of pictures had been sent, she reported the matter to police, who eventually traced the emails to a terminal at Uppsala University.

After first denying any wrongdoing, the 28-year-old eventually confessed to being “Patricia” and admitted that he had received pictures from several other underage girls.

He explained to police that during a manic episode, he sat in front of his computer for days in a row furiously sending out emails to pre-teen girls asking them to send partially-nude pictures to him.

The man, who has since quit his studies to become a teacher, has now been charged for sexual abuse and child exploitation through sexual posing.