A St Andrews university student who blackmailed girls into making sexually explicit videos after grooming them on the internet has been jailed for three and a half years.

Perth Sheriff Court heard 19-year-old Glen Wilson, from Perthshire, targeted eight girls from around the UK.

Wilson persuaded his victims, who were aged between 12 and 15, to send pictures of themselves in states of undress.

He then threatened to send the pictures to friends and family if they did not comply with his requests for more images and videos.

Wilson was arrested after a young girl in Derbyshire reported to the police that she was being blackmailed into sending images to a man.

Some of the girls confessed to parents, while another reported what Wilson had done to the Childline service.

One told the authorities that she felt suicidal over Wilson's actions, which took place over a ten-month period between 2015 and 2016.

On Tuesday Wilson was sentenced to three years and six months in prison.

Sheriff Gillian Wade said Wilson had frightened the girls into providing him with more and more images to satisfy his sexual gratification.

The nature of his threatening messages was "despicable," the sheriff added.