Blackmailer jailed for Christmas Day rape of man in Inverness
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Joshua Hunter has been jailed for four years after attacking his victim while he was unconscious.
Hunter, who was previously convicted of entrapping men online in a scan that saw him posing as a young woman, was found to have footage of him raping the victim on his smart phone.
Hunter (24) carried out the rape in the early hours of Christmas morning in 2015 having met his victim while out in Inverness city centre with a mutual friend.
Passing sentence Judge Lord Pentland told Hunter: "At the time of the offence your victim, whom you had befriended the previous evening, was asleep and intoxicated."
He said that Hunter must have been aware that the man was unconscious and incapable of consenting and that information from the victim revealed that the crime has had "devastating and lasting effects on him".
In addition to the four-year jail term Lord Pentland also ordered that Hunter should be kept under supervision and monitored for a further two-year period after his release.
The High Court in Edinburgh had previously heard how Hunter and his victim shared a taxi back to Hunter's then address in Oldtown Road, in Inverness, although the victim had no memory of the event.
He did, however, recall a naked male crotch being near his head in the property.
After he made his way home on Christmas Day morning his mother pointed out that his jumper was on back to front.
Advocate depute Derick Nelson said: "He spent the rest of Christmas Day in his room, worrying about what had happened the previous night."
The truth came to light on Boxing Day when a group of women friends were out in Inverness socialising and one of them showed footage of Hunter having sexual activity with the man to the others.
One of the women sent Hunter’s victim a message asking what had occurred and then telling him she had seen the sex video.
The man contacted Hunter and asked him to delete the video to which he responded "Huh".
The victim then contacted police and Hunter's home was searched by officers who recovered his phone. Footage was later recovered of the victim lying sleeping while Hunter carried out a sex act on him.
Hunter admitted raping the man while he was intoxicated with alcohol and asleep and incapable of giving or withholding consent.
Hunter was jailed for four years and four months in a separate case last year.
He had encouraged online victims to take explicit pictures and videos and send them to him in the belief that he was a woman.
He then extorted cash from some of the men under threat of publishing the material on social media or distributing it to family and friends.
He gained more than £1700 from the scheme and attempted to extort a further £4000 from one man during a crime spree spanning more than two years.
His targets included a 12-year-old boy.
When police seized phones, sim cards and a computer from his former home in Inverness they also recovered indecent images of children.
The offences were committed in Inverness-shire, Inverness, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Lanarkshire between January 1, 2015 and May 1, 2017.
