A Dundonian caught by paedophile hunters identified a “four-decade” gap between himself and the decoy he was chatting with.
Stephen Duncan was placed on the Sex Offenders Register at Dundee Sheriff Court.
For two weeks in March this year, he ‘communicated indecently with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl called Abi Sheldon.
In fact, the 62-year-old was speaking with vigilante paedophile hunter Claire Simpson.
Duncan, of Broughty Ferry Road, will be sentenced in the new year.
Identified age gap
Fiscal depute Larissa Milligan told the court: “Ms Simpson is a volunteer for online group Child Online Safety Team.
“She operates as a decoy who identifies persons online who are engaging in inappropriate contact towards children.
“She engages with them whilst posing as a child under the age of 16.”
The court heard Ms Simpson’s account, under the name Abi Sheldon, was active on a dating site which had a minimum user age as 18.
However, the vigilante used an image of a child as its profile picture.
Duncan – using the account Steve59 – first contacted the account by using a programmed ice-breaker feature on March 9.
Ms Simpson did not respond but Duncan messaged “hiya honey.”
To this, Ms Simpson replied “I’m Abi, I’m 14.”
Duncan was undeterred by this and told the decoy he was 61 at the time, before asking for a photograph.
He was told the app could not facilitate pictures being sent, so they exchanged numbers and moved to Whatsapp.
Four decades older joke
After receiving a picture of a child, Duncan replied: “Wow.”
He continued to make general conversation before making a comment about breasts.
Duncan told the decoy to keep their chats secret.
Two days after the initial contact, Duncan told the decoy not to ever send any pictures to men on the dating app on which they had met and not to send “sexy chat” either.
After more general conversation, he checked the decoy’s age again.
Ms Milligan said: “The accused responded making a joke that he was four decades older than Ms Simpson.”
Duncan told the decoy he wanted to “keep her safe online” and asked if anyone knew they were chatting.
She confirmed they did not, to which Duncan told her: “Good girl.”
Duncan then began to request pictures of the girl, asking for images of her legs, body and breasts.
The decoy sent him a photo of a girl’s legs and he told her she should not have but continued chatting and asking for a photograph of her breasts again.
Challenged
Duncan was eventually confronted by the paedophile hunters on March 30 and police were contacted.
When officers arrived, they observed him on the phone saying: “I’ve been silly, I was speaking to 14-year-old girls when I’m drunk.”
He pled guilty to communicating indecently with what he believed was an older child.
Sheriff Charles Lugton deferred sentencing until January 31 for reports but he was made subject to registration requirements immediately.
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