A Stirling creep who secretly photographed a teenage girl as she bent over her schoolbag had been engaging in sickening chats with other perverts.
Gerard Deery had three images of the girl – who was known to him but not related – plus one of her friend, hidden in a locked folder on his phone.
The 55-year-old was caught after police received a tip-off in September last year.
They raided his home and seized devices including his mobile phone.
Fiscal depute Stuart Asher told Stirling Sheriff Court forensic examiners carried out a preview examination of all devices.
“During the examination of the accused’s phone, they found a MeetMe chat application installed on the device and logged into by a user called ‘AlexS, 55, Rosyth GB’ with a profile picture of the now accused, Gerard Deery.
“A chat log was recovered, including conversations, whereby both parties are describing their sex life.”
Mr Asher said the accused had mentioned the girl, adding she “looks good in a uniform” and “gives me a semi”.
Deery also spoke about trying to get hold of some of the girl’s used underwear, as well as masturbating into the underwear of the other chat participant’s granddaughter.
Sick pic exchange
The police forensic examiners also found a Telegram chat in which Deery and another user were sharing photographs of unknown children in school uniforms, which appeared to have been taken from social media account.
Mr Asher said: “The accused and the other user discussed the sexual abuse of those female children and made comments such as ‘send me a sexy pic to w**k over’.”
Many other disturbing comments were made.
The officers found a secure folder on the Samsung phone, accessed with a PIN.
Within that, they found the images of the teenage girl in school uniform known to Deery.
When charged the predator told them the conversations were “fantasy chats only”, before adding: “As in wanting sex with anyone under the age of 16? Definitely no, and I have no attraction to anyone of similar ages”.
Under-18s ban challenge
In court, his solicitor said Deery “accepted the consequences” of his actions but asked the sheriff not to ban him being around all under-18s as it would prevent him seeing family members.
Deery, of Stirling, admitted sending obscene messages between December 2023 and September 2024.
Sheriff Mark O’Hanlon placed him on the sex offenders register for five years.
He also imposed a two-year supervision order with conditions he take part in the Moving Forward to Change sexual offenders programme and a ban on contact with under-18s except named individuals.
Deery must also undertake 150 hours of unpaid work.
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