Fake talent scout who groomed girls gets 3 years

A man who pretended to be a scout for a model agency to groom and blackmail young girls and women has been jailed for more than three years.

John Kilpatrick, 24, who is from Larbert, near Falkirk, set up a number of fake accounts and profiles and mainly targeted his victims while posing as a female talent scout called Beccajane, prosecutors said.

Operating from home, he compelled 19 victims to send indecent pictures of themselves via online messaging and to view sexual imagery, Stirling Sheriff Court was told.

COATBRIDGE