Five different young women and an underage girl were pestered over a four-year period by a Nairn sex offender.
Codey Masson, who had a previous conviction for a similar type of sex offence that he committed during the same time period of August 2015 to August 2019, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court.
The 28-year-old admitted six charges in total, one of engaging in sexual activity with a girl under the age of 16 and five others of communicating indecently with the women and sending photos of a penis to them and occasionally exposing himself to some of his victims.
Fiscal depute Pauline Gair told Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald that most of the incidents started innocently on social media but then got increasingly sexualised.
Exposed himself in Co-op
She said that the first offence involved a girl who was around 13 or 14 years old and they met initially at his home.
“They began exchanging messages but on one occasion he met her at the Co-op on Moss-side Road, Nairn, telling her that he liked her more than just a friend,” said Mrs Gair.
“She made it clear to him she was not interested in him.”
At that point Masson “looked around to make sure that no one else was present” and exposed himself, asking the child if she would like to touch it.
“She told him to put it away and walked away from him,” Mrs Gair said.
She added that a few days later he encountered her in local woods where he apologised and cuddled her before again taking out his penis and performing a sex act on himself before asking the girl to do it for him. The girl ran away from him.
Nude photos
Mrs Gair then told of a third occasion when the girl was mourning a friend who died at a house in Nairn and Masson cuddled her, before touching her intimately and again taking out his penis.
“She told him to f*** off and got up and left the house immediately,” Mrs Gair added.
The prosecutor then narrated the experiences of Masson’s other five victims where he would repeatedly ask for nude photographs of them, send them photos of male genitalia, of himself lying naked and asking for sex from one of them.
On each occasion, Mrs Gair said, the girls rejected his advances and did not request the images or consent to them being sent.
Defence counsel, Bill Adam briefly addressed Sheriff Macdonald, telling her that his client had not offended since 2019 and it was unfortunate that the previous 2018 offence was not rolled up with these charges.
“He has gone through a social work programme and has moved on,” he added.
Sheriff Macdonald deferred sentence until March 12 for a background report and an assessment for Masson, of Ord View Brae, to be placed on a programme for rehabilitating sex offenders.
He was immediately placed on the sex offender’s register.