A Fife paedophile tried to lure two schoolboys to his home with promise of pool games.
Despite being banned from unsupervised contact with under 16s, Jordan Stenhouse approached the boys – who were just 12 and 13 – as they waited for a bus.
The 21-year-old invited them to his home, telling them he had a pool table and they could fit in several games before they were expected home.
He later followed them onto the bus to apologise.
One of the boys informed his mother and police were called.
Police had earlier discovered images of child sexual abuse on phones owned by Stenhouse, including two at category A – the most serious.
Bus station
Fiscal depute Claire Bremner told Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court: “At 5.05pm on November 11 the witnesses, who were 12 and 13 were at Leven Bus Station waiting for a bus.
“The accused approached them and asked if they would like to go to his house as he had a pool table.
“He stated that everybody knew him and he had had four children there recently.”
Stenhouse then asked which bus they were catching and repeatedly asked them to go to his house as their route went past it.
Hid second phone from officials
In relation to images found on Stenhouse’s phones, Ms Bremner said: “On August 15 2018 a sexual harms order was granted preventing the accused having contact with persons under the age of 16 save for incidental contact or under the supervision of someone over the age of 21.
“He was also required to make his Offender Management Unit aware of any device he had that was capable of connecting to the internet.
“At around 2.30pm on November 8 2019 officers from the Offender Management Unit attended the accused’s home address to carry out a routine visit.
“They asked to see the accused’s Samsung mobile phone.”
She said a check of the phone had revealed a number of internet search terms including “young naked boys”.
Ms Bremner continued: “He admitted searching for images but hadn’t downloaded any and said he found it hard to stop looking.”
Russian image sharing website
The phone was later found to have 25 images depicting the sexual abuse of children between the ages of three and eight.
On another occasion officers found him in possession of a Sony mobile phone he had failed to tell them about.
Forensic examination of this phone found a total of 61 images.
Ms Bremner told the court: “It was clear from the accused’s search history that he had been searching for images and in particular, images of teenage boys.”
She said Stenhouse had accessed a Russian photo-sharing website commonly used by paedophiles to exchange images of child sexual abuse.
Charges
Stenhouse, a prisoner at Perth, admitted downloading indecent images of children at an address in Den Walk, Buckhaven between November 5 and 7 2019.
He further admitted conducting himself in a disorderly manner by approaching the two boys on Leven’s Shorehead on November 11 last year.
In doing so he breached a bail order put in place at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on February 24 that year.
Approaching the boys also breached the Sexual Harm Prevention Order imposed at Kirkcaldy in August 2018.
Stenhouse further breached the order at his home in Buckhaven on February 21 last year by failing to tell officials that he had a secret mobile phone capable of accessing the internet.
Sheriff Jamie Gilchrist deferred sentence until next month.
