A twisted teenager who blackmailed children and traded indecent images and video of his victims with a UK-wide network of paedophiles has been sent to detention for three-and-a-half years.
Glen Allan Wilson frightened the underage girls into sending him explicit content and then used the images as a “finder’s fee” to sex offenders willing to help him identify new victims.
He used a string of aliases and hid behind a huge number of profiles as he targeted girls aged between 12-15 in Scotland, England and Wales.
Behind the fake identities was a straight-A Dundee High School pupil who was studying at St Andrews University when his offences came to light.
His studies have been terminated by the university following his conviction.
Wilson pled guilty to 23 of the 49 charges he had initially faced, all carried out between September 10 2015 and June 14 2016.
They related to eight girls, who were aged between 12 and 15.
Wilson, of Longforgan, admitted sending sexually explicit messages to girls.
He also admitted inducing them to send indecent images of themselves and engaged in sexual activity by means of social media.
The teen also coerced and extorted them into recording images and videos with the intention of menacing them and putting them in a state of fear and alarm, and threatened to send indecent images to family and friends and publish them on social media unless they provided him with further images.
He also admitted making, being in possession of and distributing indecent images of children.
Wilson had 697 images and 246 videos showing children aged between three and eight being seriously sexually abused.
He appeared at Perth Sheriff Court today for sentencing, where Sheriff Gillian Wade said the impact of his actions on his young victims might not be known for years.
She said it was “of great concern” that he had embarked upon “a campaign of abuse and extortion” to frighten his young victims to force them to provide more and more explicit images to feed his “sexual deviancy”.
The sheriff described the nature of his actions as “despicable”.
In addition to sentencing Wilson to three years and six months in detention, she ordered that he be subject to an 18 month extended sentence following his release.
That will ensure he is carefully supervised to protect the public from harm.
He will be on the sex offenders register for life.
