Inverness man sent sex texts to ‘girl’ in online trap
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A MAN was snared in a trap set by a “paedophile hunter” group.
Steven Williams (52) of Galloway Drive, Inverness, thought he was in contact with a 13-year-old through Facebook Messenger Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
In fact he was communicating with a 38-year-old woman who was a member of the vigilante group Guardians of the North.
Williams admitted communicating with a person he thought was 13 years of age for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification, sending sexual texts and images between July and November last year.
Depute fiscal David Morton told Sheriff Margaret Neilson the woman purporting to be the teenage girl communicated almost daily with Williams before ceasing the messaging and passing evidence she had gathered to the police.
“The sexually explicit messages started off with the accused asking for a picture of her nighty then her knickers,” he said.
“He then asked for a picture of her naked, but she did not send one.”
The fiscal added that the messages became more sexually explicit over time and he also told the “girl” that he “couldn’t wait to hold and touch her”.
On one occasion, the fiscal said, Williams sent a picture which appeared to be a diagram of a female reproductive organ. The last message received from Williams was on November 20 last year when he replied to a message the woman sent saying she was “off school cause I slept in”.
His reply was: “Nice 1. A better day for ya than horrid school”.
At that point the police were contacted and Williams was arrested.
Sheriff Neilson deferred sentence to November 21 in order to obtain criminal justice background reports.
