A Fife man who sent sick messages to a “14-year-old girl” and tried to persuade her to travel more than 400 miles to meet him for sex, has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
Dale Mackie was unaware the online youngster was actually an adult operating a decoy social media account.
Despite repeatedly being told he was talking to a teenager, the 30-year-old pressed on with his sexualised chat.
At one point, Mackie, of Mackie Place in Dunfermline, even acknowledged he should not be talking to her.
Sheriff Craig McSherry placed him under supervision and on the Sex Offenders Register for 18 months and called for a review in four months.
Specific conditions include to not make contact with a child under 16 or use social media sites without approval of a supervising officer.
He must allow police and social workers involved in supervision to inspect electronic equipment when requested.
Asked girl to ‘skip school’
Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard previously when Mackie messaged the decoy account, he described in detail the types of sexual activity he wanted to try with the “teenager”.
Fiscal depute Mat Piskorz said throughout the exchange the responses received from the teen account – using the name Stacey Carter – were of an innocent and non-sexual nature.
Mackie had tried to persuade “Stacey” to skip school and travel from Cardiff to Dunfermline.
Mr Piskorz explained the account was set up by adult Denise Somers on August 31 2020 and a photo was used of a consenting adult from when she was 14.
The depute fiscal said Mackie quickly turned to the subject of sex in his messages and asked the girl what she liked to do and if she would like to “play” with her.
When she innocently responded she liked computer games, he became more explicit.
He also told her “I bet you have a sexy body” and suggested places they could go to have sex.
He later told her she could get a train from Cardiff to Edinburgh to meet up, telling her “don’t go to school”.
Paedophile hunters
Ms Somers’ reasons for setting up the decoy account were not detailed in court.
However, Mackie’s arrest was trumpeted by West Lothian-based online paedophile hunting team STS.
The group shared an image of Mackie on its Facebook page in November 2020 and stated he had been arrested and charged.
Referring to the practice of livestraming confrontations with their targets, the post said: “Dale was not stung due to the location he resided”.
Mackie admitted a charge of trying to engage in sexual communication with a social media account he believed belonged to a child.
He further pled guilty to attempting to meet with the operator of the account, still believing she was a child.
Mackie admitted that from a property in Cowdenbeath or elsewhere, he tried to meet with the girl for the purposes of then or afterwards engaging in unlawful sexual activity with her or in her presence.
Online paedophile hunters acting no differently to neighbourhood watches, senior judge rules
