Locations
Kilbirnie, Ayrshire, KA25
Description
A fireman used social media to groom young girls across the UK and threatened to publish indecent images of them online.
Lewis MacLeod, 24, bombarded the teenagers with messages and live video calls, pressuring them over a three-year period to keep sending obscene pictures and footage to satisfy his perversions.
He was jailed after admitting the offences at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court and has been removed from his role in the fire service.
MacLeod, described as a high-risk sex offender, used the Snapchat platform to target his 15-year-old victims and show them pornography before begging them to carry out sex acts on themselves.
He threatened two of the girls that he would disclose the images and videos they sent him unless they supplied him with more.
A third victim was forced to strip and perform an indecent act after MacLeod vowed to expose her on social media unless she allowed him to access the private area of her Snapchat account.
MacLeod, of Kilbirnie, Ayrshire, who changed his online profile when the girls tried to block him, was exposed after his victims gave statements to the police and officers seized his phone and electronic devices.
He admitted six charges under the Sexual Offences and Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm Acts, carried out between April 2018 and February 2021.
Gordon Ghee, defending, told Kilmarnock Sheriff Court MacLeod “was taken from mainstream education due to his parents’ religious views and was home-schooled – he experienced substantial isolation from social situations and his peers”.
Sheriff Alistair Watson said the victims could never be certain if images of them would reappear.
He said he would have sentenced MacLeod to three years but, due to his age and background, would restrict it to 14 months. He also placed him on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.
Detective Sergeant Andrew Dunlop of Police Scotland said: “MacLeod used social media to befriend and groom girls throughout the UK. He will rightly face the consequences of his actions and a lengthy period in prison.”