Police join forces with Facebook to snare paedophile

Court: Man tried to extort images from girls

Transatlantic cooperation between Police Scotland and Facebook led to a convicted sex offender being caught trying to lure young girls to send him indecent images of themselves.

The offences were committed five years before Benjamin Mackay was sentenced for other sex offences, including possessing indecent images of children he had persuaded to pose naked while he was working as a lifeguard at an Inverness leisure centre.

Mackay is serving a three-year jail sentence for sexually assaulting a woman in a London flat.

As a result, the 25-year- old, of Woodlands Close, Westhill, was yesterday treated as a first offender at Inverness Sheriff Court.

He was sentenced to 12 months in prison, backdated to his remand date of April 13.

Mackay was also put on the sex offenders register.

Defence solicitor advocate Shahid Latif said his client was “a socially isolated individual who showed a lack of maturity”.

He added Mackay “has taken steps to address his behaviour”.

At an earlier hearing, fiscal Sharon Ralph told the court a former girlfriend of Mackay was interviewed by police investigating one of his previous offences.

She told officers the names of some girls with whom he may have had previous Facebook involvement.

Mrs Ralph added: “Thereafter an International Letter of Request made to Facebook resulted in a certified copy of evidence being sent to the police which allowed them to identify the four girls.”

Mackay admitted trying to extort more indecent images from one girl in 2013 by threatening to publish a naked photo of her already in his possession.

He also pleaded guilty to sending sexual communications to three other girls, asking for photos of them naked.

Mrs Ralph said Mackay would either use his real name or a pseudonym “Danny Smith”, and lie about his age to make the requests.

All the girls refused to comply with his demands despite him telling one that he loved her.

“(He is) a socially isolated individual who showed a lack of maturity”