Knightswood man jailed for blackmailing teenage girls with fake 'nude' photos

A sick fantasist who blackmailed schoolgirls with fake nude photos with their faces superimposed on them in a bid to get them to send him pictures, has been jailed for three years. Sean McCuaig, 22, targeted nine girls, between 12 and 17 years-old on social media using a string of fake names.

On one occasion he posted the photoshopped picture on a girl's Facebook for her friends and family to see.

Some girls he threatened to harm their family if they didn’t send him pictures, some he threatened to post the pictures on Facebook if they didn’t comply wth his requests.

Police found a document detailing fantasies of abducting, raping and hurting one of the girls and included thoughts of killing her.

McCuaig, from Knightswood, Glasgow, pled guilty at the city’s sheriff court to 20 charges spanning from January 2016 to June 2017.

They include causing the girls to look at nude images with their faces superimposed on them, threatening to post and posting pictures if they didn’t send sexual images.

The string of charges also includes downloading, distributing and having explicit pornographic images depicting women being raped.

Sheriff Johanna Johnston QC jailed him for three years with three years supervision community when he is released, and he will be on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.

Passing sentence she said: “This case involved you targeting young vulnerable girls on the internet over a lengthy period and persisting in a pattern of criminal behaviour.”

She added: “You menaced and frightened these girls and used their images for your own sexual gratification.”

McCuaig had a total of 2653 indecent images of children and 65 moving images ranging to the most serious category.

He used pseudonyms and threatened to upload to social media naked images of females with the girls' heads photoshopped on to them.

The court heard the police investigation started in March 2017 when one of the victims, a 14-year-old contacted the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre to report being blackmailed.

Procurator fiscal depute Kathleen O’Donnell said: “During the full cyber crime examination of his computer equipment, a number of files were found.

“One file in particular titled ‘fakenudes’ which contained a range of full body and facial images relating to a number of females.

“These images have been edited or obtained for the purpose of editing.”

McCuaig set up a number of Facebook profiles including several in the name of Cara Smith, Cara Clark and Cara Rodgers, as well as Toby Greenhill and Philip Greenhill.

A document was also found relating to one of his victims, another 14-year-old who was sent a picture of a nude female with her face superimposed on from someone claiming to be a girl.

The 'female' threatened to post the fake picture online if the teenager didn’t send an indecent picture, but no pictures were sent.

Miss O’Donnell said: “A document was located whereby he fantasises about abducting, sexually degrading and humiliating the witness and mentions killing her if she was to see her face, however, in brackets said he would not kill her but ‘she wouldn’t know that’.

“Also located, was a naked image within a file named ‘fakenudes’ which was titled with her name and showed her face superimposed on to a naked body.”

A 15-year-old was also sent a fake picture with her face on it, and “begged” McCuaig not to share it for fear or of being bullied.

Callous McCuaig told her to send a picture or he would post the picture and started a countdown.

She sent him a picture of her bare legs and selfies, including one of her looking upset.

Miss O’Donnell said: “The complainer pleaded with the male to stop doing this and stated at one point ‘please stop doing this, I will honestly kill myself if you post that pic.”

She repeatedly begged him to stop and eventually confided in a teacher at school.

McCuaig also targeted a 12-year-old and told her to “stop telling lies” when she said the naked picture he had doctored, was not her.

He said: “If you don’t admit it’s you, I’m going to upload it on Facebook” before he blocked her.

The court heard family members later text her to ask about a Facebook post and she saw that McCuaig posted the picture and wrote “She’s exposed now, she sends dirty nudes to everybody”.

Miss O’Donnell said: “The complainer discovered people in her school had also seen the picture on Facebook and this resulted in her falling out with quite a few people.”

Eventually he took the image down and the account used to post it was deleted.

Sick McCuaig threatened a 14-year-old that he would do things to her family if she didn’t send him pictures of herself and showed her a photo with her head photoshopped on it.

The schoolgirl sent him pictures and told him to leave her alone, but after a couple of weeks he messaged her again and claimed “I’m not done yet”.

Videos of the girl were found on his computer that showed her as “hesitant, uncomfortable and awkward”.

McCuaig was questioned in October last year about the offence and “spoke freely”.

He was asked about the document about his fantasies and confirmed he was the person who wrote it.

The court heard the document included the line “I never want to do this but I am very scared I might succumb to these thoughts”.

Defence lawyer Craig Grimes said when speaking to police McCuaig was “honest about his dishonesty”.

He said his client knew he was going to be jailed and has “not shirked from that”.

Mr Grimes said: “It’s accepted by Mr McCuaig his offences and accepted fear and alarm cause to individuals was real.”

The court also heard that since being in prison, he has been contacted by another prisoner who suggested they “get together and do this” but McCuaig reported this.