A Nigerian man who used fake social media profiles to convince young women to send compromising images of themselves before blackmailing and raping one of them has been jailed for 15 years in the U.K.

24-year-old Rhys Miller-Offiong created false profiles on social media and dating websites in a revenge porn scheme that targeted vulnerable young women for sex.

Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Andrew Hudson said on Thursday that Miller-Offiong used a false online profile and a variety of social media accounts and telephone numbers in a scam known as catfishing.

He continued:

“Once he gained their trust, he would demand sexually explicit images of them, threatening them so that they felt scared and pressurised into complying.

“Two of his victims sent him images of themselves. He then demanded money and sexual acts from them.” 

READ ALSO! HE GOT HER CONFUSED! Man, 51, rapes 14-year-old girl inside football viewing centre in Lagos

Mr Hudson said Miller-Offiong’s “digital footprint” had helped to catch him because three separate police investigations were linked back to the same man.

He added:

“I hope that other people who may have been affected by revenge porn or other offences following catfishing will have the confidence to come forward in the knowledge that they will be treated with respect, and that their reports will be taken seriously.”

Miller-Offiong, who is black, posed as a white man on Facebook and Plenty of Fish and encouraged women to send him naked and partially clothed selfies.

He demanded either sex or money from his first victim, a 17-year-old girl, before sending compromising pictures of her to her mother, brother, and boyfriend.

A second victim was also tricked into sending Miller-Offiong sexually explicit pictures and videos of herself, before agreeing to go on a date in Catford last August.

However, when she arrived she received a text threatening to distribute the naked images and film if she did not meet another man first.

Fearing it would be shared online, she went with the man, who was actually Miller-Offiong, to a nearby house where he attacked and raped her.

The third victim met Miller-Offiong through dating website Plenty of Fish. Thinking he was white, she questioned him when he sent over a real picture of himself.

READ ALSO! FOLLOWED BY ‘A STAR IS BORN’! Political comedy ‘Vice’ leads Golden Globe film nominations with six nods [Full List]

He then began to threaten the woman, demanding that she perform a sex act on him, and he sent menacing text messages the next day suggesting he was watching her.

Miller-Offiong, from Catford, pleaded guilty to blackmail, rape, four charges of distributing indecent images of a child, three of disclosing a private sexual photograph with intent to cause distress, and a charge of committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence.