A pair of undercover police officers thwarted a Dundee paedophile’s attempts to groom children on social media.
Joseph Nicholson, 40, sent a string of nauseating messages to two profiles he believed were an underage boy and girl.
The creep – who claimed to be a duty manager at a hotel chain – repeatedly asked for pictures of the “children” over Kik and Snapchat.
A police raid on the home Nicholson shared with his husband found he was also storing child abuse videos at the highest level of depravity.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard how Nicholson engaged in numerous in-depth sexual conversations between August and October 2023.
The profiles – named “Leon” and “Ava” – would reply with various child-like responses and questions.
Horrific messages
Fiscal depute Andrew Brown read aloud the lengthy messages Nicholson exchanged, posing as a man called “Lewis” with the username Lewboy2022.
He said to the male profile: “I wanna see everything cause I think you are cute AF” (as f***).
The court heard how Nicholson repeatedly pestered the child for images posing in underwear and continued to escalate the sexual remarks.
Nicholson, who sent images of himself, messaged: “Doesn’t have to be nakes right now, body in boxers just now would be nice.
“Can work up to them being off after that hehe.”
When speaking to “Ava”, Nicholson immediately asked for a picture of her face.
“Just because most girls are either catfishing or scam bots,” Nicholson said.
“Not sure your as innocent as you look.
“What stuff do you normally do with guys on here. I am sure not always clean haha.”
Nicholson repeatedly pressured the girl into sending a video of herself saying his name to prove she was a real person.
Photos matched pervert’s home
Describing the search on Nicholson’s home, Mr Brown said: “The accused and his husband were traced in the property.
“The nature of the enquiry was explained.
“A mobile phone belonging to the accused was seized.
“Jogging bottoms were discovered which matched those in an image.
“An image containing a red carpet in one of the photos matched that of the locus.”
Two Category A videos of child sex abuse material were also recovered from the mobile phone.
Nicholson received the files through a group chat.
He admitted two charges of attempting to communicate indecently with two children between August and October 2023.
After pleading guilty on the day he was due to stand trial, Nicholson’s sentence was deferred until July for a social work report to be prepared.
His bail was continued and he is now a registered sex offender.
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