I was tricked into sending a topless photo to a paedophile at 13, who blackmailed me then abused me in my bedroom. Rhiannon tells her shocking story on the rise of 'sextortion' - and the horrifying new tactics of the internet's worst predators

I was tricked into sending a topless photo to a paedophile at 13, who blackmailed me then abused me in my bedroom. Rhiannon tells her shocking story on the rise of 'sextortion' - and the horrifying new tactics of the internet's worst predators By Steve Boggan Published: 17:11 BST, 12 June 2024 | Updated: 17:29 BST, 12 June 2024 e-mail 8 View comments It took less than 24 hours for a paedophile to groom 13-year-old Rhiannon McDonald online and then sexually assault her in her own bedroom. ‘I was tricked and manipulated into sending one topless picture to a person I thought was a woman,’ she says.

‘But as soon as I sent it, the nice “woman” became a very nasty man and threatened to put my picture all over the internet unless I did whatever he said — and that included giving him my home address. I was only a child, and I was terrified.’ Rhiannon, now 34, was an early victim of internet ‘sextortion’, where someone sets up a fake identity to trick, scam or exploit an innocent user into sending explicit photos of themselves.

Rhiannon was only 13 when she was manipulated into sending a topless picture to a person she thought was a woman online He blackmailed the teen into giving him her home address, then abused her in her bedroom The psychological effect on those blackmailed can be profound, as the parents of Murray Dowey from Dunblane tragically found when the 16-year-old took his own life last December. He had been tricked into sending compromising pictures of h.