A teenager blackmailed a man into paying him hundreds of pounds to keep secret a saucy picture he’d sent him on a dating app.
Joseph Cordiner, 19, threatened to send the image of the man in his underwear to his boss if he didn’t drop off cash for him to collect.
The terrified victim, who had got talking to the teen on online dating site Grindr, paid up £300, and then a further £400.
But when Cordiner demanded a “final instalment” of £500, he called the police.
Depute Fiscal Lynne MacVicar told Aberdeen Sheriff Court: “On the evening of August 30 2018 the complainer was within his home address browsing the dating site and engaged in conversation with the accused.
“During the online conversation, picture messages were exchanged, which included the accused sending a picture of male genitalia to the complainer, who in turn sent the accused a picture of himself in his underwear.
“On receiving the picture message, the accused sent the complainer a message stating he knew who he was, knew where the complainer worked and that he would send pictures to the complainer’s manager if the complainer did not agree to pay the accused a sum of money.”
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The man “panicked” and blocked Cordiner’s account, but the teen made a new one “repeatedly making demands for money” to which he agreed “reluctantly”.
Ms MacVicar said: “The accused then told the complainer to drive to the public footpath near Monument View in Inverurie and to leave £300 in a bag, take an image of the money being dropped off and contact the accused once he’d left.
“The complainer deposited the money as the accused had instructed.
“The complainer was then contacted on September 1 2018 by the accused, again demanding more money. The complainer at that time said he was unable to drive to Inverurie as he had been drinking and on September 2 the accused made contact again and reiterated the same threats to contact the complainer’s manager were money not deposited.
“This caused the complainer to again attend at the locus and leave the sum of £400.”
On September 3 the victim was contacted on Whatsapp, with a message headed “final instalment”.
Ms MacVicar said: “The message read ‘could not find you on Grindr, found you on here though’ and the message continued ‘I’m going to need another final payment, this is definitely the last one of £500’.”
A further message stated: “Please do not ignore the last message. I know you well, you will not be able to ignore me forever.”
The man then contacted the police and a mobile number connected to one of the online accounts was found to be linked to Cordiner.
Cordiner, of North Street, Inverurie, pled guilty to extortion and attempted extortion. Defence agent Debbie Ginniver asked for sentence to be deferred for reports and reserved mitigation.
Sheriff Margaret Hodge deferred sentence until next month.
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