A CONVICTED sex offender who tricked women into emailing him intimate pictures before threatening to post them online has been jailed for two and a half years.

Former archaeologist William Summerson used social media and popular online dating services such as ‘Tinder’ and ‘Plenty of Fish’ to approach five women, before enticing them to send him topless and naked images.

Two of the women were even duped into performing sex acts on themselves during live Skype calls with the pervert.

The court also heard how Summerson, of West Moors Road, Ferndown, had been convicted of similar offences - when he posed as a top model agent - just three years previously.

One of his latest victims, who was tricked into sending intimate pictures of herself on Christmas Day, later considered suicide when she realised she’d been conned.

Summerson posed online as a potential suitor, a female modelling scout and even an American businessman to snare his victims.

After he built up trust and they emailed him images, he threatened to create a website with the material and send it to their personal contacts - which included close family, friends and work colleagues - unless they failed to comply with his demands.

One of these demands was for a victim to engage with him on a private Skype call, another victim was told to secretly record herself having sex with a stranger for his gratification. However, both of these women refused his demands.

After one of the women went to the police, they traced Summerson’s IP address, questioned him and seized his computer. Months afterwards other women, from across the UK, also reported being tricked and he was arrested.

The 31-year-old, who was already on the sex offenders register at the time of these latest offences, appeared at Bournemouth Crown Court on Thursday, October 19.

He admitted a string of charges, including causing women to take their clothes off, causing them to take pictures of themselves in various state’s of undress and causing them to perform sex acts on themselves.

Judge Peter Crabtree, who described the crimes as “carefully planned deceptions” told Summerson “You acted out of a compulsion to get sexual gratification.”

The judge also said he believed Summerson, who targeted the five women between August 14, 2015, and December 25, 2016, posed a “high risk of reoffending.”