A Broughty Ferry man has denied trying to blackmail an American housewife and two transgender students into sending him explicit selfies.
Matthew Watt, 23, denied plotting to extort sexual material from the trio and claimed he was carrying out a photography project.
He admitted to a jury at Dundee Sheriff Court he had asked one complainer for “thigh” shots but claimed that person had been willing to take part in his college project.
Watt said: “At the time I was studying photography – nudes, shower shots and certain body parts. I wanted to do it as a career.
“I just wanted her to model for a close up, tonal project,” he said in relation to one complainer’s evidence he had threatened to expose the alleged victim if she did not send him photos.
He said one had told him of plans to sell pictures of feet on OnlyFans but the witness denied ever selling any photographs for money.
Evidence from ‘extortion victims’
The trial earlier heard a married woman giving evidence via a transatlantic video link from Virginia, USA.
She said she had been quizzed by the FBI after being targeted by Watt, who she said knew from when she previously lived in Scotland.
She said she was “freaked out” by him demanding explicit photographs from her on SnapChat, before he went on to try to blackmail her.
Watt said he would tell her husband she had been sending pictures, which she had not, she told the jury.
Another witness, who has transitioned from female to male, told the court Watt threatened “blackmail” for refusal to send him graphic selfies.
The transgender witness told the jury Watt claimed he was working on a photographic project called “The Illusion Project.”
The witness denied ever selling photos of feet online.
When he was told by police he was being charged with sexual extortion offences, Watt replied: “She said she had done something similar with something before.
“I thought she was consensual.”
Denies all charges
Among the charges Watt, of Rowanbank Gardens, denies is trying to blackmail the US-based mother-of-three by threatening to share explicit sexual images of her online.
He denies forcing another person to send him more sexual images by using extortion.
Watt denies targeting three women – the two trans complainers were female at the time – between September 1 2019 and April 2020 13, including “coercing [a named person] into posing for sexually explicit photographs and videos”, forcing her to send him sex videos and bombarding her with sexual messages online.
He denies a further a further count of extortion and two of attempted extortion.
Evidence in the case has been completed and the trial, before Sheriff Alistair Carmichael, continues.
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