Student facing 49 charges relating to underage girls

A Perthshire student is facing trial over allegations he extorted sexually explicit pictures and videos from underage girls.

Glen Allan Wilson, 18, faces 49 charges relating to eight girls aged between 12 and 15 years of age.

Wilson, who is currently studying at St Andrews University, is said to have committed the offences between September 10, 2015 and June 14 last year.

He was not present to face the charges at Perth Sheriff Court as he was said to be taking “final exams”, but a solicitor tendered not guilty pleas to all charges in his absence.

Depute fiscal John Malpass said the trial would be a “major operation”, with alleged victims giving evidence remotely from across Scotland, England and Wales.

Wilson faces similar charges in relation to each of the young complainers, each said to have been committed at an address in Longforgan.

The Crown alleges he sent sexually explicit messages to the girls, three aged 12, two aged 13, two aged 14 and one aged 15, and also sent them sexually explicit images of himself.

It is also alleged he induced the girls to send images of themselves in sexual activity by means of social media, including Skype.

He is then said to have 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.

Wilson is due to stand trial at Perth Sheriff Court on August 14.