A man who pretended to be a scout for a model agency groomed and blackmailed girls as young as ten into sending him naked pictures of themselves.

John Kilpatrick, of Larbert, Forth Valley, has been jailed for three years and eight months after posing as a woman looking for new models.

Between January 2014 and March last year, Kilpatrick portrayed himself as "BeccaJane" and got 19 victims to send naked pictures of themselves while forcing them to view sexual imagery.

He set up a number of fake accounts and profiles posing as an employee for the London-based BMA model agency.

Kilpatrick pretended that as the talent scout "she" had a legitimate basis for seeking images from them.

At the same time he would also use one of his other profiles to contact the victims and befriend them before reassuring them BeccaJane was genuine.

He also extorted and attempted to extort further naked images from them on the basis that he threatened to post the images they had sent him previously unless more material was sent.

The age of his victims ranged from ten to 25 with all but two of them being 17 or under. Five were under the age of 13 and eight were aged between 13 and 16.

Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to a total of 24 charges.

Procurator fiscal Jennifer Harrower said: "Many of John Kilpatrick's victims were extremely vulnerable and reluctant to be involved in proceedings and it took incredible bravery in coming forward to report what happened to them.

"It is thanks to their courage and a painstaking, thorough and demanding effort on the part of police and prosecutors that it has been possible to bring him to justice for his crimes."

She added: "We would urge anyone who has been a victim of such offences to report it to the police so they can be fully investigated.

"They will be treated with the utmost professionalism and sensitivity by the police and our expert prosecutors and we will do all we can to deliver justice."

Detective chief inspector Vicky Watson said: "John Kilpatrick used deception to engage with his victims, many of whom were young girls, before obtaining indecent images of them and trying to extort further images from them through the use of threats and intimidation.

"He is a predator of the worst kind and deliberately targeted victims he perceived to be either vulnerable or susceptible to coercion."