A notorious Angus paedophile offered child abuse files to lure a teenage boy into sending him naked pictures.
The youngster was left feeling suicidal over fears the images he sent would be distributed to other paedophiles by a man who is already on the Sex Offenders Register for life.
Serial offender John Johnstone was brought from HMP Perth to Dundee Sheriff Court on Wednesday.
Johnstone had pled guilty two another pair of sex offences a day earlier but returned for a Crown narrative to be read.
In May 2020, he began using teen chat site “mylol” to engage with a 14-year-old schoolboy from England.
The boy’s full name, age and general location were visible but Johnstone was chatting under the aliases of “Summer,” a 13-year-old girl.
Single dad-of-four Johnstone’s chat with the boy was initially general but when the conversation moved to Skype, it became sexual.
The scarring conversations lasted until late July that year, when police raided the 45-year-old’s home in Warddykes Road, Arbroath.
During this time, Johnstone asked the boy to send him naked pictures and offered to send him sick child abuse files in exchange.
The boy – who cannot be named for legal reasons – did send naked images of himself.
In exchange, Johnstone sent the boy two Category A videos and a Category B image.
After police raided the Angus property, they identified the Skype accounts through which the chats had taken place were registered to email addresses belonging to Johnstone and the boy.
Victim interviewed
Police carried out further inquiries with the child at his home in England.
He was able to identify himself in a redacted indecent image he sent to Johnstone.
The boy’s mother reported the boy realised he was speaking to an adult and became suicidal, fearing the images he sent would be forwarded to other paedophiles.
She said he had been referred to his GP.
Johnstone admitted that between May and July 2020, he caused a child to view a sexual image by sending him child abuse files.
He also pled guilty to a charge of causing a child to engage in sexual activity by requesting and receiving naked photographs of the boy.
Sheriff Paul Brown ordered reports and deferred sentencing until March 8.
The sheriff said: “These are serious offences against a schedule of previous convictions which are serious.”
History of deviancy
Johnstone was placed on the sex offenders register at Forfar Sheriff Court in June 2019 when he was caught with 28 child abuse files.
Then, in November 2020, he was convicted of another sex offence.
Johnstone also has convictions for distributing indecent images, taking or making the sick files, possession of extreme porn and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
The dark web paedophile was jailed for 40 months after he built a secret den in his home to store the homemade vile haul of material he distributed worldwide.
He had taken photos of himself carrying out sex acts and posing next to a sleeping girl then bragged to social workers he’d done no “actual harm” because she was asleep when he abused her.
The images were shared on paedophile sites and the farm worker had asked others to send similar material.
A specialist police unit’s investigation snared Johnstone after discovering the files were uploaded from an Arbroath address.
In January 2021, a sentence of unpaid work order made in Forfar in 2019 was converted into a concurrent seven-month sentence after breaching that order.
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