A mum helped snare a north-east man who sent sexual social media posts to girls as young as ten.
Callum Findlay, from Stonehaven, admitted yesterday to sending sexually offensive videos of himself to young girls using the social media platform, Snapchat.
The 26-year old also used a fake name and false images in an attempt to pose as a schoolmate of the girls.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard how in April 2019 Findlay used the Snapchat platform to lure in the girls as friends, before bombarding them with videos and images of him carrying our sex acts on himself.
In one instance, Findlay was reported to police when the mum of a 14-year old girl posed as her daughter to collect a USB stick worth of messages from him.
The girl’s mother also identified Findlay’s Aberdeonian accent and his whereabouts due to him leaving his Snapchat location setting visible.
Parents of a 10-year old victim were also alerted to Findlay’s actions when a teacher reported the sexually explicit videos after the girl became upset.
Three other girls aged 15 and 16 were also targeted by Findlay, with each separately receiving a friend request from the accused’s Snapchat account.
Procurator fiscal Felicity Merson explained how, using a fake name and picture, Findlay sent messages to the girls initially before sending them sexually offensive videos.
She said: “One girl thought the request was from a boy at her school and accepted it.
“A short time later she received a message asking her what she was up to, to which she replied: ‘nothing much’.
“The following day she received the same message and did not reply. Later that day she received 30 short videos of the accused and continued to receive videos for the next two weeks.”
One of the three girls said she also noted Findlay’s location as Stonehaven – her older sister later contacted police to inform them.
Findlay, of Forest Park, Stonehaven, was later charged with a number of counts of the Sex Offences Scotland Act, including intentionally attempting to cause humiliation, distress or alarm through the sending of sexual messages, sending sexual images to a child under the age of 13 and two counts of attempting to cause a child to view a sexual image.
Sheriff Graham Buchanan, who warned Findlay that his charges were “a very serious matter”, deferred sentencing for reports and a restriction of liberty order assessment.
Findlay was also placed on the sex offenders’ register.