A child welfare charity has called for assurances after a paedophile was caught with a huge cache of child abuse images at his home overlooking a Perth primary school.
Donald Kerr admitted having more than 1,300 indecent images of youngsters and about 10 hours-worth of obscene video clips.
The 47-year-old, who groomed girls by posing as a teenage boy on a social networking site, had also engaged in sex chat with a 15-year-old schoolgirl and asked her to perform a sex act for him via a webcam.
Kerr will be sentenced next month and was released on bail to his Crammond Place property which overlooks North Muirton Primary School.
Bharti Patel, chief executive officer of child support group ECPAT UK, said she had “real concerns” about the case.
“This is a person who has been released into the community after pleading guilty to a serious offence and is now back living very close to a school.
“We need to make sure there is a system in place to evaluate the risks to local children. If he is considered to be a high risk, he should be put into supervised accommodation.”
She added: “The safety of all children is the most important factor here.”
At Perth Sheriff Court on Tuesday, Kerr admitted pretending to be 16-year-old “Don” when he chatted to youngsters on a social networking site and begged them to perform sex acts for him on a webcam.
He was caught out after police raided his home and uncovered more than 1,300 obscene pictures of children stored on his computer.
The haul included more than 10 hours of illicit videos and a collection of ‘selfies’ of youngsters in various states of undress.
Kerr admitted taking or making or permitting to take or make indecent images of children between January and June 2012.
He also pleaded guilty to having a sexual online chat with a 15-year-old girl between August and November 2011.
He admitted asking her for sexually explicit pictures via webcam and asking her to meet him for sex.
The court heard the youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, declined Kerr’s requests and had never met him in person.
Kerr was placed on the sex offenders register and released on bail. He will return to court for sentencing on October 29.
Commenting on the proximity of Kerr’s house to North Muirton Primary School, MSP Murdo Fraser said: “I can well understand the concerns of local residents, particularly those who are parents, that an individual like this is back in the community, given the very serious offences he has admitted to.
“I hope that the police will work hard to reassure local residents that there is no risk to them.”
A force spokeswoman declined to comment on the case but did say: “We do fully appreciate public concerns with regard to sex offenders living within the community.”
Fiscal depute Carol Whyte said police went to Kerr’s ex-council property after a tip-off.
He immediately admitted his involvement when officers arrived on his doorstep.
He told them they did not need to speak to other members of the household, saying: “It was me anyway,” he said.
Mrs Whyte said: “He said there would be pictures on a computer tower that people had sent him of naked girls of all ages.
“He said he had started going on websites and looking at pornography and had just kept progressing to the next stage.
“He stated it was like a habit, an addiction, and he stated that he hadn’t thought he would become like something like that.
“He stated he just looked at pictures and nothing else.”
When asked by police if he knew about the ages of the girls, he said he thought they were between “13 and whatever”.
She added: “He confirmed he had taken pictures of other people and set up a profile pretending to be 16 years old.”
The court heard his persona, Don, chatted to a 15-year-old girl.
Mrs Whyte said: “After two days, he asked her to send pictures of herself in underwear or less, to speak to him on the webcam and to strip for him, to send a video showing her pleasuring herself and requested that she sleep with him.”