Abuser claimed internet acts to meet girl were just ‘a bit of fun’

A BRICKLAYER who posed as a teenage boy and his mother in a bid to dupe a 14-year-old girl into carrying out sex acts claimed it was “a bit of fun”.

Donald Griffin created dual personas on apps to groom the schoolgirl, first by pretending to be a 17-year-old boy called Lee and then posing as the boy’s mother Susan.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis told Griffin: “His explanation is that it ‘started out as a bit of fun’ at a time when he had ‘had one or two beers’.”

Griffin contacted the girl on nine days during a 13-day period.

Griffin spun a web of lies – including that the mother he was posing as worked in the child abuse unit with Police Scotland – to hook the girl into believing him.

It was ultimately Griffin who was duped as the 14-year-old girl was actually a front for an adult member of a vigilante paedophile hunter group.

His partner called the police when eight members of the group turned up at their home to confront “Lee Griffin” as she thought it was mistaken identity.

However, when police started to look into the matter, it emerged it was Griffin who had been using his own phone to contact the girl.

Griffin, 58, of Kinloch Terrace, Perth, admitted sending sexual communication to a girl he believed to be between 13 and 16 for his sexual gratification between January 3 and 16 2019.

Fiscal depute Gail Russell told the court that Child Protectors Scotland set up a fake Facebook account for a child and it was quickly targeted by Griffin.

The father of two was placed on the sex offenders register and under supervision for three years, and ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work.