The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Jail for pervert fantasist
Fake model agency scout duped girls into sending him naked images
A loner who created a fantasy world in his back bedroom and posed as a top modelling agency talent scout to dupe girls into sending him naked pictures has been jailed.
John Kilpatrick was living with his elderly mother when he dreamed up the scam, using a “friend finder” app to bring up a list of female profiles.
The 24-year-old, of Larbert, told them his name was Becca-Jane and that he worked for London-based BMA Models, asking each victim “have you ever wanted to be a model?”
Stirling Sheriff Court heard he started off by asking them for figure shots, before seeking increasingly provocative images – including naked shots.
When he received them, he moved into extortion mode, threatening to spread the initial pictures via the internet unless his “contacts” sent him more.
The court heard Kilpatrick amassed 19 female victims from across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, including five girls under 13 and eight more aged 13-16. His youngest victim was 10, the oldest 25.
To gain the trust of the girls, he also posed as the manager of the modelling firm, the boyfriend and flatmate of Becca-Jane.
Defence solicitor-advocate Martin Morrow told
“Uploaded naked images of one girl to a ‘revenge porn’ website”
the court: “He created a fantasy world, with this model agency, featuring multiple characters and exotic locations, including hotel rooftops in Madrid, and social events that just simply weren’t happening.”
The offences were committed between January 2014 and March 2016. In the case of one 12-year-old girl from the south-west of England, he pretended to be a boy from her school.
He asked her to send naked images of herself. She did, and he continued to demand further images and threatened to show her pictures at school if she refused, also describing violent sexual acts which he said he would carry out on her next day at school.
He uploaded naked images of one 17-year-old girl to a “revenge porn” website.
Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to 24 charges, including obtaining or attempting to obtain pictures and private details of women and girls by fraud, extortion or attempted extortion; distributing indecent images of a child; causing young girls to look at indecent images; and encouraging children to participate in sexual activity.
Yesterday, Sheriff Pino Di Emidio jailed him for more than three years, and put him on the sex offenders register for life.