A Perth paedophile asked a “12-year-old girl” to perform degrading acts in sickening social media chats.
Connor Mackay believed he was sending vile messages to pre-teenage girls.
However the 30-year-old was instead being snared by volunteers at two separate paedophile hunting groups.
One group went on to confront Mackay in an encounter that was livestreamed online.
After his house was raided by police, officers found he had child abuse material and bestiality images on his computer.
‘Child’ targets
Fiscal depute Stewart Duncan told Perth Sheriff Court Mackay had interacted with three separate profiles set up by paedophile Hunters.
He said; “On September 20 2023 the accused contacted a decoy account. She stated she was 12.
”This was on Facebook and it went from there to WhatsApp when mobile numbers were exchanged.
”On December 2 2023 the accused asked if she had reached puberty.”
He went on to ask her to perform degrading acts and sent her a photo of his penis.
Mackay asked her to use a mirror to take a picture of her own genitals and sent her further pornographic images.
In January 2024, Mackay began contacting a second account run by the same vigilante group.
Mr Duncan said: “She also said she was 12 and the accused stated he was 28.
”The accused asked her if she had big or small hands. She responded that it was a strange question.
”He then made a lewd suggestion and sent a picture of a penis.
In another chat Mackay asked her about her developing body and sent her pictures of female genitals.
Police raid
Mackay later turned his attention to a decoy account run by a different volunteer group, making similar sickening suggestions in a chat with a “child”.
The group – The Online Child Protection Team – carried out a “sting” on Mackay before reporting him to the police.
Officers raiding his home seized a MacBook and three USB drives and uncovered a stash of extreme pornographic images and child abuse material.
Mackay, of Douglas Davidson Drive, Rattray, by Blairgowrie, admitted having sexually explicit conversations with a person he believed to be a child under 13 between September 2023 and January 2024.
He further admitted attempting to communicate indecently with two other people he believed to be children between December 2023 and January 2024.
Mackay also pled guilty to taking or making indecent images of children and possession of bestiality images.
Sentence was deferred for reports and he was placed on the sex offenders register in the interim.
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