A Perth pizza shop boss groomed three “vulnerable” 14-year-old girls and persuaded them to send him naked selfies.
Jurors heard how Lewis McConnell asked the children for sexual photographs in exchange for helping them get alcohol.
The 27-year-old helped two of the teenagers run away from home and met one with the intention of engaging in unlawful sexual activity.
McConnell, from Dundee, denied a catalogue of sexual offending when he appeared at Perth Sheriff Court.
He claimed his Snapchat account may have been hacked.
McConnell, who managed Perth’s Domino’s takeaway at the time but now runs a café in Edinburgh, was found guilty after each of his young victims gave evidence against him.
‘Serious offences’
He was convicted of coercing three teenage girls into looking at sexual images and compelling them to send him naked images of themselves between January 1 and October 31 2022.
Jurors also found him guilty of meeting one of the girls for sexual activity.
An allegation he sexually assaulted the youngster on an unknown road near Edinburgh was not proven.
Claims he met two of the other girls for sexual activity were also not proven and prosecutors withdrew an allegation he had bought alcohol on behalf of the teenagers.
Sheriff Jennifer Bain deferred sentence for background reports and placed McConnell on the sex offenders register.
She told him: “You have been found guilty of serious offences involving vulnerable children.”
Evidence screenshotted for police
In a pre-recorded interview played to jurors, one girl, now 17, said she met McConnell through another friend.
Like the other victims, she knew him as Nathan.
“We thought he was a delivery driver for Domino’s,” she said.
They communicated on Snapchat and she would ask him to get her alcohol.
One evening, he picked her up from her home in Perth and drove her to a shop where they got caffeinated vodka drink Dragon Soop.
After dropping her back home, McConnell sent her a message: “How are you going to repay me?”
The girl, who cannot be identified, said: “He then asked me to send him naked pictures of myself.”
Asked if she did, she replied: “Yeah. Once or twice.”
The teenager said McConnell sent her a photo of his penis “about five times.”
He sent her a series of sexual texts, which she said she largely ignored, replying with simply an image of her ceiling.
On one occasion, he sent an image of his face and made a comment about having to wear glasses.
The girl was able to copy the photo – without alerting McConnell it had been screenshotted – and passed it to police.
Image made girl ‘uncomfortable’
The girl spoke of a time when McConnell collected her and another 14-year-old girl and drove them to locations across Scotland.
She said when she got into the back of his car, “I turned my phone off so my parents couldn’t see my location, because me and (the other girl) wanted to run away.”
The girl said they were driven to Glasgow city centre but went on to Edinburgh “because there was loads of police”.
She described herself as “out of it,” after drinking Dragon Soop and smoking weed.
After Edinburgh, McConnell drove them to the beach at Broughty Ferry and then to Dundee city centre.
Another girl said she had been in McConnell’s car 10 to 15 times.
She said he asked for naked photos “kind of frequently” and also sent her photos of his penis “frequent-ish as well”.
Asked by fiscal depute Alistair McDermid how she felt about seeing the images, she said: “Awkward, uncomfortable.”
The court heard McConnell, of Balgavies Avenue, has been on bail since February 2023, with a special condition not to contact any child under 16.
His defence counsel Lewis Kennedy KC said he would give mitigation at the sentencing hearing in January.
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