An oil and gas accountant has been jailed after sexual chats with an undercover police officer who was posing as an underaged girl.
Serial paedophile Steven Balfour denied charges of engaging in sexual conversation with what he believed to be a child, and possessing a number of indecent images of children.
The 52-year-old went on trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court last month.
But after hearing all the evidence in the case against Balfour, it took a jury only two hours to unanimously find him guilty of both charges.
He was convicted of possessing 36 Category C images of children engaging in sexual acts and for his disturbing conversations with the child abuse investigator.
Not the first conviction
Following the verdict, the court heard that Balfour had a prior conviction from 2016 – also for possessing child images.
It emerged that Balfour, of Whitehills Street in Cove, worked as a senior accountant for a number of North Sea oil and gas companies.
During the trial, jurors heard he used a social media chat app called Kik to send the decoy child a picture of his private parts.
The sick sex offender also asked about her sexual experiences, and on one occasion, even quizzed the fictitious child about “her hymen”.
‘Immoral behaviour’
Defence agent Andrew Ormiston told the court that his client recognised he had been taking part in “immoral behaviour”.
But he claimed that Balfour maintains he had no knowledge of the messages and “genuinely believed he was speaking to an adult”.
Mr Ormiston added: “He recognised that the jury did not accept that claim.
“It’s clear from the social work report and his past conviction that he had developed inappropriate coping mechanisms to deal with the complex issues he was dealing with.
“Mr Balfour regrets having engaged in this type of behaviour and recognises that it was ill-advised – he will not do so again.”
Sheriff Ian Wallace sent Balfour to prison for 30 months.
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