A BLACKMAILER who was jailed after posing as a young woman online to entrap men and a schoolboy was found to have footage of him raping a man on his phone.

Joshua Hunter, 24, a hairdresser formerly of Dunfermline, carried out the sexual assault on his victim after taking him home in the early hours of Christmas morning in 2015.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the victim had been drinking heavily in pubs in Inverness when he came across a friend in the company of Hunter.

The 24-year-old later shared a taxi to Hunter's then address in the city, although the victim had no memory of this.

He said he recalled a naked male crotch being near his head but then passed out and later remembered getting dressed and looking for his mobile phone.

He made his way home and "spent the rest of Christmas day in his room, worrying about what had happened the previous night".

On Boxing day, footage of Hunter having sexual activity with the man was seen by a woman who contacted the victim and asked what had happened between him and Hunter.

He replied that nothing had happened and that they only shared a taxi. She then told him she had seen the video.

When the man contacted Hunter and asked him to delete the video, he responded "Huh". The victim then called the police.

Hunter's home was searched and footage on his phone showed the victim lying sleeping while Hunter carried out a sex act on him.

He admitted assaulting and raping the man while he was intoxicated with alcohol and asleep and incapable of giving or withholding consent, when he appeared in court today.

The judge said it was "a serious sexual offence" and sentencing will take place next month.

Lord Pentland added that he had read remarks made by another judge, Lady Scott, when she sentenced Hunter to four years and four months imprisonment for a catalogue of crimes last year.

In the previous case, details of which were prohibited from publication until now, Hunter encouraged victims to take explicit pictures and videos and send them to a fake female profile that he set up online.

He then blackmailed and extorted money from some of the men under threat of publishing the material on social media or distributing it to family and friends.

Hunter, who had moved to Dunfermline from Inverness, gained more than £1,700 from the scheme and attempted to extort a further £4,000 from one man during a crime spree spanning more than two years.

He began by targeting a 12-year-old boy in 2015, pretended to be a female and induced the child to perform sex acts on himself, record them and send them to him.

Hunter then went on to look for men as online targets.

When police seized phones, sim cards and a computer from his former home in Inverness they also recovered indecent images of children.

Lady Scott told Hunter at the High Court in Edinburgh: "This was a callous course of conduct persisted in over a period of almost two years and clearly caused considerable distress and anxiety to a number of your victims."

She jailed Hunter for two years for the extortion and attempted extortion offences and a further two years and four months for the crimes involving the boy.

He was placed on the sex offenders' register for a 10-year period.

The judge said she took into account that he was a first offender with no history of violence or sex crimes.

Hunter earlier admitted a total of 13 charges. He pleaded guilty to nine charges of extortion, offences of causing an underage child to participate in sexual activity and possessing and making indecent images of children.

The offences were committed in Inverness-shire, Inverness, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Lanarkshire between January 1, 2015 and May 1, 2017.

Advocate depute Stewart Ronnie told the court that Hunter's criminal conduct had a profound effect on one victim.

The man was "terrified" that material he had sent would be revealed to his family. The prosecutor added: "He contemplated taking his own life."

Another victim handed over £500 fearing that images of him in a nude state would be sent to his employers.

Lady Scott said: "You requested or persuaded your victims to engage in sexual acts likely to be viewed as degrading and you did this because those images were likely to result in payment to prevent publication."

The judge said Hunter must have known "the corrupting and damaging effect" his behaviour would have on the child.

Defence solicitor advocate Ewen Roy said: "I acknowledge this was a very serious and lengthy course of criminal conduct persisted in by him for his own gratification and financial gain.

"He bitterly regrets his involvement in these matters and indeed looks back with a great deal of disgust at his conduct.

"He takes no issue with the characterisation of his conduct as selfish, calculated and exploitative.

"There is little doubt it would have caused great harm and significant distress to his victims."