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A teenager has admitted to twisted sextortion in which he demanded nude images off female victims while catfishing them using an Italian TikTok star's pictures.
The 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named due to his age, faced Port Kembla Children's Court with his parents on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to 14 offences.
Police arrested him at a Wollongong home last October and seized his iPhone, later discovering he had created 33 email addresses which included his name.
The email addresses had been used to make accounts on the apps Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Wizz.
He used up to 136 different usernames across his profiles to catfish victims and would change them in a bid to avoid detection after they reported him.
Police found a Google Drive where the teen stored pictures of a TikTok star which he used as his profile pictures, as well as a trove of nude images and videos of his five female victims aged between 15 and 19.
On some occasions, the offender would send his victims $1 from his personal ANZ bank account, offering more money during the coercion process.
He would threaten distribution of the victim's images once he received them, unless the victim provided more sexual content within seconds of his demands.
'U got 30 seconds ... or I start leaking'
Last September, the offender messaged a 15-year-old girl on Instagram using a fake name.
The pair introduced themselves before the boy asked for nude images in exchange for money.
The offender said he would pay $300 for images and $600 for 'live images'.
The victim sent about eight images, some depicting her breasts, and others showing her buttocks.
As the girl became more uncomfortable with the offender's requests, she took a screenshot of his profile and sent it to a friend, who told her the profile picture belonged to a famous Tik Tok user.
When confronted about this, the offender instantly changed his username and profile picture, before threatening to leak her intimate images unless she sent more.
"When I cum I'll send a vid of me deleting everthing ... u got 30 seconds to send a vid or I start leaking," he said.
"Okay I'm sorry," the girl replied.
"Hurry up," the offender said, "send them faster."
The girl continued apologising while the demands continued. She sent another 12 images and six short videos.
The offender kept threatening to leak images after she wouldn't comply with his disturbing requests.
"Alright I'm leaking then," he said after the girl refused to go on a FaceTime call.
"NO DON'T ... please ... wait," she replied, eventually complying with a call while he instructed her on sexual acts to perform.
She complied out of fear and he screen recorded the call.
"Keep me added n (sic) send me sh-t every now and then and I won't leak ur sh-t," he messaged the girl after the call.
The offender sent the girl's intimate images to her father via Facebook after she refused to send him further videos.
"Send it (a video) or I send to more people," he threatened.
The victim called her father to not view the images. The incident was reported to police.
'Send whatever I want'
The next month, the offender used a fake name and struck up a conversation with a 16-year-old on Snapchat, with the chat quickly taking a turn.
"Would you ever sell your nudes?," he asked the girl, to which she replied "no".
He unfriended her, but the pair connected on another app. The girl indicated she might be willing to share images if she developed a connection.
After chatting for a while, she sent four intimate images, two of which depicted her breasts.
The offender stopped talking to the girl and logged into another Snapchat account with a different username.
He quickly posted the girl's images onto a public 'story' post with the caption, "She'll send to anyone ... just call or text her" with her phone number included.
That evening, the girl was inundated with 90 Snapchat friend requests and a flood of phone calls and voice messages.
She was terrified and immediately started crying.
"It felt like people even though they weren't actually near me ... they were almost in my home, because they were in my phone," she later told police.
The girl confronted the Snapchat user who posted the images, but was met with disturbing demands.
"Send whatever I want til I cum or it stays up for thousands of ppl (sic) to see. When I cum I'll send a screen recording of me deleting it," the offender said.
"If you block me now it stays up forever. You got two minutes to send a titty vid or I put more up."
More demands for images were made, but the girl didn't comply.
Instead, she noticed the offender's location services were active, which displayed his Wollongong address. She took a screenshot it and provided it to the police.
He repeated similar patterns of offending to his other victims.
Court appearance
The offender pleaded guilty to 14 offences, including two counts of sexual assault by forced self-manipulation, three counts of demand with menaces to obtain a gain or cause a loss, and two counts of transmitting child abuse material.
He remains on bail and is scheduled to sentenced in six weeks.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Emma House 1800 366 238; South West CASA 5564 4144; MensLine 1300 789 978; Kids Helpline 1800 551 800; beyondblue 1300 224 636; 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732.
Grace Crivellaro
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
