A schoolboy used social media sites to blackmail a young girl into supplying him with sexually explicit images of herself.
Adam Marini also threatened to abduct another girl, saying he would subject her to sickening sexual violence.
Adopting three separate aliases and communicating via sites such as Facebook, the 17-year-old further tormented a third girl, saying he would rape her if she did not arrange for further sexually explicit images to be sent to him.
Marini, from Strathkinness, told one of the girls he would torture her.
The extent of his crimes only came to light when he broke down, confessing to staff at a Christian Outreach Centre.
Cupar Sheriff Court heard Marini had enjoyed a platonic friendship with the first girl but they had ”drifted apart” before he hatched his scheme to exploit her for sexual gratification.
All three girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were left terrified by the offences.
On Thursday, Marini admitted a total of three charges, including one that he tried to menace a 15-year-old girl, saying he would distribute sexually explicit images of her if she did not supply further pictures.
He further pled guilty to a charge of threatening a second girl with physical and sexual violence in a bid to extort sexually explicit photographs.
Marini told the girl he would abduct her and tie her up.
He then contacted a third pupil, threatening to rape her.
Depute fiscal Nicola Henderson spent almost half an hour detailing the case.
She said of the accused: ”He had been good friends with Miss A (the first complainer) … but they had drifted apart. They had never been in anything other than a friendly relationship. Some time later Miss A began to have contact with a male via the social messaging site MSN.
”The male said his name was Jamie Brown, although it was in fact the accused. During this time ‘Jamie’ and Miss A wilfully exchanged sexually explicit photographs of themselves.”
The contact fizzled out but, some weeks later, the accused began posing online as a ”Darren Oldie”.
”’Darren’, who was in fact the accused, began conversing with Miss A via social networking,” Ms Henderson continued. ”The accused said that the pictures she had previously sent to ‘Jamie’ would be posted on Facebook if she did not send more explicit pictures.”
Terrified about the original images becoming public, Miss A sent further images to ‘Darren’ as instructed. Still not satisfied, Marini then adopted the name ”Andy Field”.
At first Miss A rejected his request to communicate on Facebook. However, the accused then texted her using an unknown phone number, saying she would ”get jumped” if she did not accept ”Andy” as a ”friend”.
Ms Henderson said Miss A was left ”upset and scared” and felt she had no option but to talk to ‘Andy’ online. Marini then sent her a message, still posing as ‘Andy’, saying: ”The sad thing is if you block or delete me I will send the pictures you sent to Jamie to all of your Facebook friends.”
Marini went on to demand more explicit pictures and again feeling she had no alternative Miss A sent a photograph.
Ms Henderson said it was not long before Marini turned his attention to the other girls, again using aliases and ordering both to arrange for sexually explicit images to be sent to him.
With the deception continuing to grow, he also sent Miss A a further menacing message which stated: ”You do not want to get police in. Trust me, it will be worse for you than me.”
The depute fiscal described how posing as ‘Andy Field’ Marini told one of the girls to ensure further images were sent to him that same day. When she refused, he wrote: ”One day after all this … I will hit you over the head with something and take you back to mine.”
The depute fiscal said the girl was ”exceptionally scared and intimidated” by the remarks.
Marini’s reign of terror only ended when he confessed all during a trip to a local Christian Outreach Centre. The accused told staff: ”I have been blackmailing a girl with the internet to send naked pictures.”
Sheriff Fiona Tait deferred sentence until December 15 for reports and a risk assessment. Marini was released on bail meantime and his name was added to the sex offenders register.