A 30-year-old Fife man sent a barrage of sexually explicit messages to a person he thought was a 13-year-old girl.
But Matthew Grigg was actually communicating online with an adult paedophile hunter.
Police later arrested him at his home and seized computers containing more than 320 child abuse images and 47 videos.
Grigg, of Durie Park, Burntisland, appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to plead guilty to his crimes.
Tattoo chat turned sexual
Prosecutor Lee-Anne Barclay told the court screenshots of conversations between the decoy child and Grigg were passed to a member of Forbidden Scotland, a vigilante group which targets sexual predators.
Ms Barclay said Grigg engaged the decoy in a chat on an unknown platform and they told him they were 13 years old.
The fiscal said the chat began about various general subjects, including summer holidays and tattoos.
Ms Barclay said during the conversation about tattoos, Grigg said: “Tattoos are like sex, your first time hurts like f*** then you get addicted to wanting more, haha”.
The chat later moved to WhatsApp and Grigg began messaging the decoy with explicit sexual details and asked for a “picture of your privates”.
Numerous other explicit messages were received by the decoy from Grigg’s mobile number.
Vigilantes and police arrived
The court heard a witness from the vigilante group later went Grigg’s home and confirmed he lived there.
Police attended a short time later and arrested Grigg.
He admitted attempting to communicate indecently with a person he believed to be 13-year-old child by asking her sexual questions and making sexual remarks, between July 6 and 12 last year.
Court papers state he did this intentionally and for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification or humiliating, distressing or alarming the person he believed to be child.
Grigg also admitted possessing indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children, between March 19 2019 and August 17 2022, at an address in Lochgelly.
Ms Barclay told the court various computers were examined for child sexual abuse material.
A total of 321 images and 47 videos were found on two of the devices. Of those, 27 images and 24 videos were classed as category A – the most graphic kind.
Sheriff Robert More adjourned sentencing until October 23 to obtain background reports and bail was continued.
Grigg was placed on the Sex Offenders Register meantime.
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