A butcher who posed as a teenager to groom boys on Snapchat was branded ‘every parent’s worst nightmare’ as he was jailed for his crimes.

Ryan King was told he had robbed his victims of their ‘innocence and childhood’.

The 31-year-old pretended to be 15 and bombarded children as young as 11 on the app with pictures and videos of himself and others performing sex acts. He also tried to arrange meet-ups while claiming to be a teenage boy called Sam between April and November last year.

At a pre-trial hearing, King had admitted his guilt to the offences which involved him targeting boys aged 11, 12, 13 and 15. On Thursday, at Paisley Sheriff Court, he was sentenced to 45 months.

Sheriff Gillian Craig ordered King, of Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, to be supervised for three years once released.

She told him: ‘You are, to my mind, every parent’s worst nightmare. These children should never have seen this material. You’ve robbed them of their innocence. They were all groomed by you.

‘The shame is all yours – not theirs. They felt disgusted, frightened, shocked, scared.’

The sheriff added: ‘There is no alternative to a custodial disposal. This is the maximum sentence I can impose.’

Ryan King King has been placed him on the sex offenders register for ten years

King was also placed him on the sex offenders register for ten years and made the subject of a ten-year-long sexual harm prevention order.

An Apprentice of the Year finalist at the Scottish Craft Butcher Training Awards 2017, King has previous convictions for possession of indecent images of children and for sending obscene messages and pictures to an 11-year-old girl.

After sentencing, Detective Inspector David Hardie said: ‘King gave no thought to his victims, just using them for his sexual gratification.’