A man who targeted young teenage girls from Perthshire through an online chat site has been put on the sex offenders register.
Daniel Titley, from Telford in Shropshire, pretended to be a friend of one of the three girls to make initial contact in the MSN Messenger chat room.
He was soon bombarding the trio with sexually explicit requests and, using a webcam, exposed himself to one of them before performing a sex act.
Titley (20), a father of one who called himself Weekend Offender while online, knew the girls were under age throughout three months of contact with them.
He appeared at Perth Sheriff Court on Thursday to admit charges of behaving in a lewd, indecent and libidinous manner towards each of the girls between June 1 and September 1 last year.
For legal reasons, none of the girls involved can be identified.
Depute fiscal Alan Kempton said Titley first contacted a 14-year-old girl on the chat room using a false name. Believing it to be a friend, the girl responded.
Mr Kempton said: ”The person began to ask her where she lived and how old she was and it was obvious this person was not (who she thought it was) as he would have been aware of her age and where she lived.
”She replied to the accused and stated she lived in Scotland and that she was 13, to which she received a reply: ‘Wow, that’s young.’
”She continued to communicate with the accused who informed her that he was called Dan and that he lived near Birmingham and that he was aged 16. He later said he was 18.”
Titley’s behaviour took a more sinister turn.
Mr Kempton said: ”Within a short period of time (the complainer) began receiving further messages from the accused asking her what she looked like and if she had a webcam which would allow him to see if she was 13.
”The accused also suggested that if she had a webcam she could activate it and then take off her clothes for him and that he would do the same for her.”
Mr Kempton said the girl became ”alarmed” and told a friend, who joined their online ”chat” with the intention of telling Titley to stop messaging.
However, the second girl, also a young teenager, then struck up an online relationship with Titley and invited a third girl into their chats.
Mr Kempton said of the third girl: ”She had contact with the accused on various occasions throughout. During her first conversation with the accused she told him she was a teenager and was still at school.
”She noted the accused would sign the end of his messages with the phrase ‘Weekend Offender’.
”The accused repeatedly asked (the third complainer) to activate her webcam to allow them to see each other whilst they spoke. She refused to go on the webcam.”
Titley then sent her a series of sexually explicit messages and she broke off communications.
The original two girls maintained contact and Titley sent messages begging them to strip and send him naked photographs.
They refused but one girl gave her mobile phone number, to which he sent explicit text messages, as well as stripping on camera and performing a sex act, at which she ”became alarmed” and switched her computer off.
The episode came to an end when teachers discovered what was happening and called in the police.
Forensic analysis was carried out on the phones and computers and Titley was arrested at the home in which he still lived with his mother.
His solicitor, Cheryl Clarke, said he had been ”flattered” by attention from the girls but had been ”stupid” to maintain contact.
He will be sentenced next month when reports have been prepared.