A TEENAGE blackmailer ran a bogus gay sex chat line from his bedroom in his mom's flat - and forced 10 men to pay him nearly $90,000.
Kelz Sutherland, 19, tried to lure callers into talking about sex with children before threatening to play tapes of the calls to their families, employers and the police.
He talked in one voice as he set out to trap victims, then switched to another and claimed to be the line's "monitor" or "moderator" before making his threats.
The scheming teenager ordered the terrified men to pay thousands of pounds each to have their calls "deleted from the system."
The cash was paid into the bank account of Sutherland's mother.
Sutherland extorted a total of $87,700 from callers including teachers and a company secretary with a charity.
One man paid him $34,000 in three months and another handed over $24,000 in just a month.
Sutherland used the cash to fund a life of luxury, hiring chauffeur-driven cars to go on nights out at expensive bars.
Callers from across the UK got the sex line number from ads in free papers or porn magazines, and got through to Sutherland in his room at the flat he shared with mum Mary in Bath Street, Portobello, Edinburgh.
Mary admits she knew her son was a gay escort and used his bedroom to "talk sexy" to clients, but she denies knowing anything about the blackmail plot.
Some of the callers were interested in gay sex, others in sex with women. Sutherland would pretend to be a woman if the caller was heterosexual.
Once he had a caller on the line, Sutherland would try to steer the conversation to illegal underage sex. He then changed his voice to become the "monitor" and threatened to expose the caller to police.
If the men did not pay up immediately, Sutherland would bombard them with threatening phone calls.
Sutherland continued his scam for two years, but was finally caught when one man went to police after Sutherland told him to hand over $8000.
The cops tapped the man's phone and listened in as Sutherland called to demand payment.
Officers raided Sutherland's flat on January 23 this year. A search of his laptop revealed the phone numbers, home addresses and workplaces of the men who had called the sex line.
Mary Sutherland was also arrested because the cash was paid into her account, but she was not charged.
Sutherland pled guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday to extorting $87,700 from 10 men between January 1 2008 and December 31 2009.
The teenager flew into a rage in the dock before he was remanded in custody to await sentence.
He shouted: "These men are all f ****** pedophiles. That 's why I targeted them.
"Why is it me that's sitting here and not them?"
Defense lawyer Fiona Cooper said Sutherland was adamant others had been involved in the plot, and another person had received "substantial sums."
Cooper added: "He doesn't accept he was the one who led any of the callers into inappropriate conversations. He sees himself as having taken action against people he viewed as pedophiles."
Sutherland will be sentenced later this month. Sheriff Deirdre MacNeill said: "I can see this gentleman has a troubled background and that will all be fully explored in a psychiatric report."
The sheriff said it was obvious others had been involved. She noted that one of the men had told police he had spoken to two women on the sex line.
Prosecutors said the evidence had not led them to other suspects and they were not sure who else had been involved.
Mary Sutherland insisted her son's crimes had come as "a complete shock".
She added: "I knew he was working on a gay chat line-he's gay. You don't think anything of it these days."
She said Sutherland had used her bank account because he "couldn't get ID to set up his own".
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