A Dundee High pupil blackmailed underage girls into sending him sexually explicit video and pictures – and then used the images as a “finder’s fee” to UK paedophiles willing to help him identify new victims.
Glen Allan Wilson – now a student at St Andrews University – was a straight-A pupil when he began preying upon children in the most aggressive fashion.
Using a string of aliases and hiding behind a huge number of profiles he targeted girls aged between 12 and 15 in Scotland, England and Wales.
Through secret communications he persuaded his victims – whom he knew to be underage – to send indecent images.
Once they had been sent, Wilson, now aged 18, went on the attack and threatened to destroy their lives if they did not engage in increasingly depraved acts on video. The offences began when he was 16 years old.
Even being told by a 12-year-old girl that he had pushed her to the point of suicide was not enough to stop his threats.
Appearing at Perth Sheriff Court, Wilson pleaded guilty to 23 of the 49 charges he had initially faced, all said to have been carried out between September 10, 2015 and June 14, 2016.
They related to eight girls, who were aged between 12 and 15 at the time they fell prey to the teenager’s urges.
When police officers finally caught him they discovered a detailed record of his demands and a huge number of pictures and videos on his iPhone and iPad.
Though he was convicted of preying upon eight girls, investigators found that he had sent the same chilling blackmail message 450 times.
It read: “You have two options. Either do exactly as I say or I press the send button.
“Block me, delete me, report me, tell your parents, and everyone you know will see everything.
“Everyone you know, your friends and your family, will see you as a slut.
“Do what I ask you and this will soon be over. I’ll go away. I’ll delete everything.
“I don’t want to ruin your life, but I will if you make me.
“I am doing this because I want to see you naked and only because of that.
“Do the right thing.”
The message was enough to frighten most of his victims into sending further videos until they eventually called his bluff, called the police or Childline, or their parents intervened.
On one occasion, he told a victim that he had “offered a client” a Skype session with her.
He then used threats to persuade her to perform sex acts while at least one unidentified male watched.
On another occasion, when one of the girls stood up to him, he issued her with a countdown to her images being made public.
When her parents intervened, he texted to say the threat had been “a bluff”.
In addition to making at least one of the girls perform for unnamed others, the court was told he had offered links to a Dropbox account filled with indecent images and video which he was offering to paedophiles across the UK for details of “further potential victims”.
Wilson, of Longforgan, admitted sending sexually explicit messages to girls, three aged 12, two aged 13, two aged 14 and one aged 15.
He also admitted inducing the girls 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 3 and 8 being seriously sexually abused.
Sheriff Gillian Wade told Wilson he was “very lucky” not to have been appearing at the High Court.
She rejected calls for him to be released on bail and remanded him ahead of sentencing on September 13.
He has been told it is almost inevitable that he will be sentenced to a lengthy period in custody.
