A foot fetishist offered to pay teenage girls up to £250 a month for pictures of their feet – then replied with photos of himself in a state of arousal, a court has heard.
Keith Mowat said the girls – aged 17 and 13 – could make money if they sent him the snaps but soon began to ask them to show him more intimate parts of their bodies.
When a 13-year-old victim did so, he shared those pictures with people that she knew, leaving her “embarrassed and distressed”.
Mowat, 32, appeared via videolink from custody at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit paying for the sexual services of a child and attempting to pay for the sexual services of a child.
He also pled guilty to two counts of causing another to look at a sexual image without consent and one of disclosing a photograph showing another in an intimate situation.
Fiscal depute Alison Young told the court that on July 15 last year police in Norfolk received a report of concern about Mowat, after which the 17-year-old victim was spoken to.
Sex offender connected with teens on Snapchat
The teen explained she had been added by Mowat on Snapchat and he had messaged her to ask “if she was interested in earning money”.
He offered to send her £60 up front to “reassure her he was legit” and asked her to send photographs of her feet – which she did.
“After the third photo the accused started asking her for naked photos,” Ms Young told the court.
When the girl refused he instead asked for photos of her knees and hair, which he also requested that she cut.
The court heard that the girl received a number of images of Mowat in a state of arousal in response to pictures that she sent.
A second girl, aged 13, contacted Mowat after her friend told her she could “make money through him”.
“The accused asked her if she would like to make £250 a month in exchange for photos of her feet,” the fiscal depute told Sheriff Gary Aitken.
Shortly after this, he made a small payment into her mother’s bank account.
Mowat again asked for nude photos and the girl said she did not do this, but did later send images of her bottom and breasts.
In response to those, Mowat sent an image of himself in a state of arousal while wearing boxer shorts.
Foot picture payments were conditional
Mowat told the girl that the photograph needed to have a certain effect on him in order for her to receive full payment.
The girl later discovered to her horror that Mowat had shared the intimate images of her with people that she knew.
She said she “felt her heart literally drop when she realised that they had been shared” and was “embarrassed and distressed” by this.
Mowat was arrested at his Sellar Place home in Conon Bridge. His mobile phone was seized and he was taken into custody.
Defence agent Shahid Latif made no comments in mitigation at this calling of the case, as sentencing was deferred until next month by Sheriff Aitken.
The sheriff told Mowat, whose address was given as a prisoner in Inverness: “You should be under no illusion that a custodial sentence is a very distinct possibility, if not probability, in this case.”
He placed him on the sex offenders register with immediate effect.