An amateur photographer who drugged and raped young men after using Instagram to lure them to his home for modelling shoots has been jailed for 11 and a half years.
Nigel Wilkinson chose his victims on the social network then invited them to visit him for male fitness photoshoots.
Once they were at his home the 43-year-old would ply them with alcoholic drinks laced with sedatives, including the date rape drug Rohypnol, to render them senseless and incapable.
Wilkinson pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and three of administering a substance with intent to rape.
He also admitted possession of the class C drugs flunitrazepam, known as Rohypnol, and nitrazepam.
Bristol Crown Court heard that he ‘liked to take the masculinity of straight men’ and that his three victims had been left devastated.
Detectives suspect the number of victims could run into double figures but many were so heavily drugged they may not have realised what happened.
Passing sentence, Judge Michael Longman told former shop manager Wilkinson: ‘You wanted to have sex with as many attractive men as possible. All the victims were much younger than you and entrusted themselves to you. You abused their trust.’
The court heard that Wilkinson promoted himself as a male fitness photographer and set up a respectable-looking online enterprise called WilkoPhotography last summer.
He would search for victims on Instagram and invite them to his house in Bedminster, Bristol, so he could help them put together a modelling portfolio. Police were investigating him for offences against a 19-year-old man from Kent when officers attended his home in April to arrest him and found a second victim – a 23-year-old from Gloucestershire – asleep on his sofa.
Both had traces of sedatives in their systems.
The second victim had no knowledge of what had happened but described it as ‘the most disgusting thing an individual can do’.
During their investigation police identified a third victim, a 19-year-old from Wiltshire, who was also found to have traces of sedatives in his system.
None of the men had any memory of the acts committed on them.
During searches of the house police found photographs of a variety of males, some of whom were naked, on his computer.
Virginia Cornwall, mitigating, admitted Wilkinson had a ‘reckless disregard’ for the men for his own sexual gratification. He had written to his victims apologising.
Police are continuing to investigate Wilkinson’s background and want to speak to anyone who may have had contact with him through photography or dating websites.
Wilkinson, who is single, has been in custody since early May.
Detective Constable Stacey Matthews said: ‘On the surface Nigel Wilkinson was a photographer of male fitness models.
‘In private he was a cunning sexual offender who used his photography enterprise as a cover and a catalyst for his deviant activities.’
Daily Mail