Naked men ‘performed sex acts’ in Doncaster school’s hacked Zoom lesson

Parents were left horrified after pupils, expecting to tune into a reading event, were met with images of a group of men exposing themselves to children and performing sex acts.

Mexborough’s Laurel Academy was one of the schools where the youngsters’ Zoom call was hacked – but it is understood a number of Doncaster schools were invited to take part in the event, which was hosted by an external provider.

Police are now investigating after the hackers made threats towards upset pupils – which took place on Safer Internet Day.

When pupils logged in to a link they had been sent by teachers, instead of seeing the ‘author’ event that was promised by provider Reading Rampage, they were shocked to see a group of naked men exposing themselves.

One parent whose child clicked on the link said: “A few kids obviously clicked the link the teacher sent over and there were loads of foreign men stood totally naked with their private parts in their hands.”

The Laurel Academy said it could not provide a formal statement while the incident was under investigation by police and stressed that a number of schools had been invited to take part in the external event.

However, in a letter sent to parents, Richard Brooke, Laurel Academy’s principal, said: "We are aware of an issue with an online external event attended by some of our Year 7 students today. We are taking steps with the external provider."

South Yorkshire Police said in a statement: 'We received a call yesterday (9 February) at 11am reporting an online session, being hosted externally to a number of Doncaster schools, being hacked by two men.

'It is believed they committed lewd acts and made threats towards the children attending the session.

'Enquiries are on-going to ascertain the circumstances and find those responsible. We are working closely with Doncaster Council and anyone with information that can help officers is asked to call 101 quoting incident number 358 of 9 February 2021.'

We have attempted to contact Reading Rampage for comment.