The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Man posed as girl and had abuse images
A43-year-old paedophile who posed as a teenage girl to groom children online has been banned from entering parks and playgrounds.
Insurance worker Anthony Duncan was told by a sheriff he had played a part in the global sexual abuse of children.
Duncan sent an explicit photograph of himself to an undercover police officer investigating online grooming and posing as a 13-year-old girl.
The incident led to police raiding Duncan’s home and finding child abuse material, which included videos with a running time of more than four days.
At Perth Sheriff Court Duncan was placed on the sex offenders register for three years and ordered to carry out 300 hours’ unpaid work in the community.
He was also placed under supervision and had a conduct requirement imposed to restrict his online activity and to keep him away under 18.
Sheriff William Wood said: “The sexualisation of children before the age and stage where it is appropriate is reprehensible and abhorrent.”
The court was told Duncan believed he was chatting to a 13-year-old girl on a social media site aimed at young teenagers.
He initially posed as a young girl as he struck up conversation with “Jack”, who was actually a specialist police officer from anyone
leading an anti-grooming unit.
The court was told Duncan turned the conversation around to sexual topics within a few days.
He then sent a graphic image to “Jack”.
A check on his internet details led to a police raid on his Perth home.
When officers searched
the property they found hundreds of abuse pictures and videos stored on his equipment.
The court was told Duncan initially targeted a social media site used by schoolchildren.
He was unaware the “Jack” account had been set up by the South East Regional Crime Unit in a bid to target paedophiles
in England and afield.
Duncan, of Hospital Street, Perth, admitted sending written sexual communication to someone he believed to be a child between December 31 2019 and January 7 2020.
He also admitted having illicit child material at his home between August 2019 and March 2020. further