Two women who blackmailed nearly a dozen men out of almost £122,000 by sending sexual photos before claiming to be 15-year-old girls have avoided being locked up.
Rocha Lynch, 19, and Caitlin Rattray, 21, “exploited rules to protect women and used them to exploit men”, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
They lived the high life with their extortion money, using it to fund a lavish lifestyle that included designer clothes and luxury hotels.
Today, the impact of the scam was described by a sheriff as “catastrophic”, with one victim handing over £115,000 of his dead mum’s inheritance.
Lynch and Rattray, both of Royal Deeside, sent a number of men sexual images of themselves before claiming to be underage and warned they’d be branded “paedos” if they didn’t cough up.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard 11 men – including a British soldier – were taken in by the extortion scam.
Lynch told men she was 15 years old
Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton told the court at a previous hearing that many of the men were sent unsolicited intimate images after making contact with the two women.
However, on several occasions, the men would return intimate pictures of their private parts.
Lynch and Rattray would then threaten to expose the chat to their wives and girlfriends.
On a number of occasions, Lynch told the men she was only 15 years old after they had exchanged photos.
She would then demand cash in exchange for her silence.
One man, a soldier in the British Army, met Lynch at a pub in Ballater where they struck up a friendship and she quickly asked him for a loan of money.
Following this both Lynch and Rattray began threatening him, saying they would inform the army he requested intimate images from them unless he gave them money.
“He was alarmed by this and felt he had no other option but to transfer more money as instructed,” Mr Middleton said.
The threats continued with the pair often contacting the soldier via Facebook and requesting more money.
Mr Middleton said the situation escalated, with Lynch threatening to tell the man’s family and claiming she was “under 18”, which would make him “a paedo”.
When police executed a search warrant in August 2021 at Rattray’s home they found a phone where she tells the squaddie: “F*** you over 10x worse, you’re a pedo, mate.
“S*** I’ve got can ruin your life.”
Another victim was messaged by Lynch on Snapchat, where she wished him a happy birthday. Soon, however, she asked him for money to pay her rent.
“He felt sorry for Ms Lynch and agreed to transfer £100,” Mr Middleton told the court.
Lynch then sent him a number of unsolicited images that he believed to be of her.
When she asked him to transfer £1,000 and he refused she then threatened to inform his friends and family that he had purchased “nudes” from her.
He continued to send her money from several different accounts due to being scared his girlfriend might find out.
The victim’s father eventually discovered that his son had transferred a total of £115,000 to Lynch between September and November 2020.
The scam drained almost all the money he’d been left following the death of his mother, the court was told.
Mr Middleton said that Lynch and Rattray used the money to live an extravagant lifestyle, where they would buy expensive clothes and stay at luxury hotels with friends.
The pair openly disclosed to their friends that the funds were obtained by blackmailing men, the court was told.
Lynch, who has one previous conviction for assault, pleaded guilty to eight charges of extortion, while Rattray admitted five charges of extortion.
‘Despicable behaviour’
Kevin Longino, Lynch’s defence solicitor, described his client as “effectively homeless” when she began the scam and was “exceptionally vulnerable”.
“Her justification to herself was that she was selling these pictures – whether these people asked to buy pictures, she sent them,” he said.
“Threats were made and she is clearly accepting that these offences happened – none of that makes this in any way excusable, it’s disgusting behaviour.”
Rattray’s lawyer, Iain Hingston, told the court that his client was “horrified by her behaviour”.
“It’s despicable behaviour and she knows that and has expressed that in clear terms to me,” he said.
Mr Hingston also highlighted the sentencing guidelines for people under the age of 25 that require courts to have regard to rehabilitation as a primary consideration in sentencing.
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin told the pair that she had “come into court today with custody on her mind” and described the impact on one of their victims as “catastrophic”.
‘You exploited rules to protect women and used them to exploit men’
“What I rail against is that as young women you exploited rules to protect women and used them to exploit men,” she said.
“You should not be exploiting it for your own gain.”
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff McLaughlin made both women subject to an electronic tag via a restriction of liberty order.
She sentenced Lynch, of Sycamore Road, Banchory, to a community payback order with supervision for two years and a restriction of liberty order for 12 months.
Lynch was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
Sheriff McLaughlin made Rattray subject to a community payback order with 18 months of supervision and a restriction of liberty order for eight months.
Rattray, of Craigview Place, Ballater, must also carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.
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