Jail for Larbert man who posed as model agent to blackmail young girls

A man who pretended to be a scout for a model agency to groom and blackmail young girls and women has been jailed for more than three years.

John Kilpatrick, 24, from Larbert in the Falkirk area, set up a number of fake accounts and profiles and mainly targeted his victims while posing as a female talent scout called BeccaJane, prosecutors said.

Operating from his own home, he compelled 19 victims to send indecent pictures of themselves via online messaging and to view sexual imagery, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said.

Kilpatrick pleaded guilty at Stirling Sheriff Court last month to a number of non-contact sexual offences involving the use of the internet. He also admitted charges of fraud and extortion.

His victims, who were targeted between January 2014 and March last year, ranged in age from 10 to 25 with all but two of them 17 or under, according to the Crown.

He was jailed for three years and eight months and placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely when he returned to court for sentencing on Wednesday.

COPFS and the Judicial Office for Scotland released details of the case following the hearing.

In his sentencing statement, Sheriff Pino Di Emidio told Kilpatrick: Your actions caused a variety of effects. Some of those involved appear to have moved on in their lives. Some were deeply affected.

You had no idea how vulnerable any of them might have been at the time. In some cases your interaction with individual females took place over a significant period of months.

You had created, as your solicitor said in addressing the court in mitigation, a multi-character fantasy world involving exotic locations and fictional social events.

Unfortunately those you were in contact with in your bedroom in central Scotland interacted with that fantasy world to their detriment.''

The court heard Kilpatrick was socially isolated and lacked self-esteem, and had been anxious to resolve the case as soon as possible by admitting his guilt.

The sheriff told him: You used deceit to persuade the young females you were in contact with in internet chat rooms to engage with you. In some cases you went on to extort more images from some of them.

It is important that the sentence passed contains elements that demonstrate the court's expression of the need for punishment and deterrence to dissuade others from doing what you have done in this case.''

Jennifer Harrower, procurator fiscal for Tayside, Central and Fife, said afterwards: Many of John Kilpatricks' victims were extremely vulnerable and reluctant to be involved in proceedings and it took incredible bravery in coming forward to report what happened to them.

It is thanks to their courage and a painstaking, thorough and demanding effort on the part of police and prosecutors that it has been possible to bring him to justice for his crimes.''

Detective Chief Inspector Vicky Watson, of Police Scotland's Forth Valley public protection unit, said his sentence reflects the zero tolerance approach taken by the authorities to dealing with sexual offences.

She said: He is a predator of the worst kind and deliberately targeted victims he perceived to be either vulnerable, or susceptible to coercion.'