A MAN who pushed a schoolboy to the brink of suicide after threatening to publish explicit pictures of him on Facebook has been sentenced to 200 hours unpaid work.

Dylan Farnan, 20, forced his young victim to send intimate photos after saying he would upload more than a dozen other pictures to the internet if he didn't.

Farnan, of Motherwell used a fake Facebook profile to begin chatting to the boy - who was just 14 at the time - and the unsuspecting youngster was taken in.

After willingly swapping photos, the schoolboy - who cannot be named for legal reasons - told Farnan he wasn't sending more images and would go to the police if he wasn't left alone.

But Farnan said he had already committed a crime but promised to leave him alone if he sent more.

The twisted web designer ignored the boy telling him he was considering ending his own life and even taunted him about secretly enjoying his torment.

It lasted for 10 months until and only ended when the boy confided in family and Farnan was arrested.

He admitted causing his victim to participate in sexual activity, sending him sexual messages and taking indecent pictures of children and was yesterday sentenced at Hamilton Sheriff Court

He was also put on the sex offenders' register for two years and ordered to be kept under supervision for the same period.