A Fife schoolboy who used the internet to blackmail a young girl into supplying him with sexually explicit images of herself has been given an extended sentence.
Adam Marini (17), of Sunnyside, Strathkinness, was ordered to spend thirteen-and-a-half months in detention after admitting three separate charges relating to the extortion or attempted extortion of images using social media sites over a six-month period in 2010 at Cupar Sheriff Court.
Once released from custody, Marini will be subject to a period of close supervision for three years, while Sheriff Charles Macnair also imposed a 10-year Sexual Offences Protection Order (SOPO) the first of its kind pursued by the Crown Office and not the police in Fife which means Marini will not be allowed to delete internet history from any device he owns.
Police will also have the power to examine any device used by him to access the internet for a decade.
Marini previously admitted trying to menace one girl, who was just 15 when the behaviour first started, 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 of her or induce her to get the first girl to send pictures, telling the girl he would abduct her and tie her up.
He then contacted a third girl using Facebook and threatened to rape her.
His crimes came to light when he broke down, confessing to staff at a Christian Outreach Centre.
The court heard on Thursday how Marini had become infatuated with the first girl and enjoyed a friendly relationship on sites like Facebook and MSN Messenger mainly at night, typically contacting each other between 10pm and 2am to chat.
Having looked at 400 pages of internet logs prior to the case, Marini’s solicitor Andrew Grieve explained that his client had been ”very measured” throughout those discussions.
”There’s an infatuation with the main complainer in this case and there’s certainly an unrequited crush on her,” he said. ”The relationship continues for a year and over the course of those discussions he asks her if there is any prospect she might go out with him.
”She is quite clearly way out of his league but she diplomatically and politely declines. There’s no rancour at this stage, nothing to indicate that Mr Marini took that rejection particularly badly.”
However, after Marini managed to get her to exchange explicit pictures using the alias ‘Jamie Brown’, Mr Grieve said his client had been ”astonished” at the ease in which he was able to get the images and the situation took a more sinister turn.
He then adopted the name ‘Darren Oldie’ and began conversing with the same girl online, saying he had found the pictures sent to ‘Jamie’ and threatened to post them on Facebook if she did not send more.
Terrified about the original images becoming public, the girl sent further images, although attempts to get her to send even more sexually explicit material were not complied with.
Marini, whose plans to train as a teacher lie in tatters, targeted a friend of his first victim and demanded indecent pictures from her or he would disclose images of her friend.
He told her: ”I might wait one day til you get your bus home and are alone and hit you over the head with something and take you back to mine. I have the perfect chair to keep you tied to. If you bite me I’ll cut your legs.”
Befriending a third victim, Marini told her: ”I’m actually quite sick I’ve raped two people in your year. Do you want to hear the funny thing? You’re next.”
The court went on to hear that Marini had told a psychologist after being caught that he had got a ”buzz” from controlling the girls.
Mr Grieve said his client had shown ”remorse and thorough shame” and had even made an attempt on his life.
Mr Grieve potrayed Marini as a ”misfit” who would struggle to handle detention and appealed to Sheriff Macnair to view the incident in context.
”You are dealing with a very young adult, a person who is exposed to a sexualised world that hitherto generations were not exposed to,” he said.
However, Sheriff Macnair said the case ”demonstrated the dangers of young people having unsupervised access to the internet” and imposed the detention, ordering Marini to take part in any courses deemed appropriate upon his release.