Ex-Beauly man threatened girls over naked pictures

A former Beauly man who was waiting to be sentenced for threatening under age girls if they did not send him indecent images of themselves went on to commit similar offences involving different girls.

In May 2018, Joshua Pemberton was locked up for 27 months after admitting sexual offences including extorting the illegal photos and videos from his victims by threatening to harm them or share the images with their friends.

At Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday, Pemberton – formerly of Ruisaurie but now living in Dumfries – admitted five new charges including one of extorting naked pictures of a teen girl by threatening her.

He also admitted sending sexual communications to the girl and a younger victim to induce them to send him indecent images.

Pemberton, now aged 21, also admitted threatening to share the photographs with friends while he was on bail and breaching his bail order by communicating with seven different girls aged under 16.

The offences were all committed in January last year.

Fiscal depute Robert Weir said Pemberton initially asked one girl for naked pictures then pressured her into sending 10 videos.

Mr Weir said: “On January 23 2018, the mother of the girl had cause to examine her daughter’s mobile phone and the offence came to light.” Mr Weir added that a week later, Pemberton contacted a teenage girl on Instagram, talking rudely to her before threatening her with harm if she didn’t send him nude pictures.

He said: “The child eventually gave in and sent him two pictures.”

Sheriff Margaret Neilson deferred sentence until July 26 for a background report.