An online predator who won a legal challenge to avoid extradition to the United States for grooming a 14-year-old girl online has been jailed.
Christopher Thomson, of Balmullo Square, was made subject to an FBI probe in 2014 after he coerced the child into sending a video of herself performing a sex act.
Thomson used Xbox Live to communicate with the girl and managed to hack into her Skype account in order to monitor her movements.
The vile 26-year-old encouraged the child to self-harm and even to commit suicide.
Six years since he was first interviewed by police, Thomson was finally sentenced today at Dundee Sheriff Court following lengthy legal wranglings.
Police raided Thomson’s home following a tip-off from American authorities. The creep was noted to be “sweating” and “shaking”.
He asked officers: “Where did you get the information from? Do people go to jail for this?”
Authorities in the USA had previously lodged a bid to have Thomson extradited so he could stand trial in Texas.
However, a Scottish judge ruled in 2019 that extraditing Thomson would be a breach of his human rights. A judicial review ruled that the UK Government had acted unlawfully during the extradition proceedings.
Prosecutor Charmaine Gilmartin described how Thomson, who was a delivery driver prior to being remanded, forbade the child from talking to school friends, eating certain foods and told her to rip up her ticket to a One Direction concert.
She told the court: “The complainer first met the accused playing Gears of War online. Players would communicate on Skype while playing it.
“The complainer told American authorities that the accused started to threaten her. She sent him topless images of herself.
“The complainer describes how the accused threatened her and coerced her to participate in sexual activity.
“The accused sent a large number of abusive, controlling and threatening messages.”
Mrs Gilmartin added: “Over four days he forced her to provide updates on what she was doing every few minutes.
“She had tickets for a One Direction concert and he insisted she choose between him and the concert.”
Thomson would continually harass the girl and threatened to expose their communications to her family.
He contacted the girl’s sister and said he would make her commit suicide. The FBI were later informed and police in Scotland interrogated Thomson about his conduct.
Thomson initially denied being in contact with the child but he later confessed during the course of the interview.
He pleaded guilty to causing the girl to participate in sexual activity by compelling her to perform a sex act while he watched and recorded the video between September 1-8 2014.
Between June 1-November 11 2014, Thomson hacked into the child’s Skype account, urged her to self-harm, commit suicide and threatened to share the video during a coercive course of conduct.
Defence counsel Fred McIntosh said Thomson was “remorseful” about his conduct.
He told the court: “He asks me to tender his unreserved apologies. He feels horrible about the effects his actions have had on her.
“He thought he was being clever. He wasn’t being clever.”
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael jailed Thomson for 23 months and placed him on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
He said: “I have concluded only a custodial disposal is the only appropriate sentence.
“I do propose to reduce the sentence substantially due to the delay in bringing you to justice and a large part of that was due to the actions of the British government.”
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