A CLACKS football coach was jailed yesterday after bribing young boys to expose themselves.

Conner Stolarek, a volunteer football coach at the time with a Wee County team, offered a 12-year-old boy money and cigarettes if he would expose part of his body to him.

He induced a 10-year-old to send him naked pictures of himself by using a bogus Snapchat account and offering the child "V-Bucks" – online money for the popular video game Fortnite – in exchange.

Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that Stolarek, 26, had previously corresponded sporadically with the younger boy on Snapchat about football.

Then, in February last year, the boy received a message from Stolarek telling him that if he added a Snapchat account called "FreecodesPS4Xbox" – in reality a front being operated by Stolarek – he would get a free voucher for V-Bucks.

When the boy added the account, he received a message back asking how old he was.

Prosecutor Michael Maguire said that when he replied he was 10 and asked for the code for his V-Bucks, he received a reply "asking him to send a few 'nudies' and indicating that if he did so he would get a code".

The boy sent three pictures, one of himself in his boxers, one naked, and one of his private parts, but then received a notification that "FreecodesPS4Xbox" had screenshotted one of the pictures, so blocked the account.

Unaware that Stolarek was in fact operating the account, he complained to the coach about what had happened.

Stolarek then offered to "do a deal" with "FreecodesPS4Xbox" to get the pictures deleted – provided the boy sent them again.

When the trusting child did, Stolarek said it could take up to 48 hours for deletion to happen.

Then he messaged again asking for further material as part of a "deal".

The child replied no, but Stolarek persisted, saying: "Just a couple of videos, then I leave you alone".

Mr Maguire said: "These messages caused the boy to begin to cry."

He ran downstairs and told his gran what had happened, and the police were called.

Further evidence that Stolarek had been messaging the boy was found on the youngster's iPad.

The court heard that the incident involving the 12-year-old boy also took place in February 2020, after Stolarek had "bumped into him" in Sauchie.

He invited the youngster back to his flat and made the request that the boy expose part of this body "out of blue" as the boy sat on Stolarek's sofa playing with his mobile phone.

The boy refused, but Stolarek had asked again and added: "So you dinnae want the money and fags?"

Mr Maguire said the boy, described as "scared", refused again and left.

The court heard that the incident involving the 12-year-old was uncovered after police checked on youngsters Stolarek might have had contact with.

Stolarek was arrested and his flat in Schaw Court, Sauchie, was raided.

On an iPhone found in a box beneath the kitchen counter, officers found a stash of nearly 1400 indecent images of children, 368 of them of the most serious category.

The images had been downloaded between July 3, 2019, and February 20, 2020.

Stolarek pleaded guilty to communicating sexually with the younger boy and attempting to cause the older boy to participate in sexual activity.

He also admitted downloading child abuse images.

Sheriff Keith O'Mahony jailed him for 28 months, plus an extension of 12 months, during which he can be recalled to prison if he re-offends.

He was placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.