A MAN who blackmailed school girls online to send nude photos on social media and threatened to publish them has been jailed for two years.

Thomas Martin, 30, set up a Snapchat profile with the name ‘TomLock11’ and came across a 15-year-old girl asking for someone to buy her tobacco. He agreed but in return for a picture of her boobs, she did so and sent his account to her friend as she also wanted tobacco.

Once he had indecent images of the two girls, Martin used them to pressure the girls into sending more, by threatening to show the images publicly if they didn’t comply.

Russell Pyne, prosecuting, told Winchester Crown Court that Martin, of Launcelot Court, Andover, also sent images of his penis and made his victims watch him masturbate.

Mr Pyne said: “(One of the victim’s) asked him to delete what he had. The defendant replied saying that he wouldn’t but also would post them on four social media sites, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.”

The other girl said that she would go to the police, but he threatened her saying “he would ruin her life more than she could ruin his”. He sent an indecent image of the girl to her friend.

The blackmail came to end after one of the victim’s stepmother saw the girl attempting to take an indecent photograph.

Martin was arrested and his phone was examined which was found to contain indecent images – one of Category A, deemed to be the worst by police, 10 of Category B and two Category C.

One of the victim’s said: “The experience I went through definitely ruined my life for a while. It was demeaning, I was scared that people would find out what happened. I didn’t know who Tom Lock was or if he knew who I was.”

The other victim said she felt violated after what happened and left her having panic attacks.

Martin previously pleaded guilty to two counts of blackmail between May 1 and October 21, 2019, disclosing private sexual photographs with intent to cause distress and three charges of making an indecent photograph of a child.

In mitigation, Tamasin Graham said that Martin feels guilty for what he has done.

Ms Graham continued: “This was a low patch in his life where he describes his life having spiralled out of control.”

She said that Martin needed someone to talk to and he found that in the victims but now realises that was an “inappropriate coping mechanism”.

In sentencing, Judge William Mousley QC said: “Your behaviour had very significant and caused very serious harm to both of these women.”

The judge said he believes that Martin does “pose some risk of harm to the public”.

Martin was jailed for two years and he was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order until October 2026.