A pervert who sent vile indecent messages to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl has been given a supervision order.
George McIntosh was caught in an online sting by a paedophile-hunting group.
A member of the group had posed on social media as a 13-year-old girl and received a string of sickening messages from McIntosh, 64, between Christmas Day 2018 and January 1, 2019,
The vigilante group then confronted McIntosh in a sting which they streamed live on Facebook and passed evidence of the messages on to police.
McIntosh previously admitted attempting to communicate indecently with a child.
And now Sheriff Margaret Hodge has handed McIntosh, of Parkhill Court, Dyce, an 18-month supervision order over the matter.
She also ordered him to complete the Aberdeenshire Sex Offenders programme and put him on the sex offenders register for 18 months.
Fiscal depute Lynne McVicar previously narrated a string of sickening messages McIntosh had sent to the online decoy child throughout the festive period.
She told the court the messages were captured by the group and they secured his address before travelling to Aberdeen on January 2 2019 to confront him.
Ms McVicar said: “On December 25, 2018, a volunteer under a false name from North Yorkshire received a message from a Facebook profile called George McIntosh.
“A member of another organisation provided the telephone number of the accused. A volunteer contacted the telephone number and stated he was a delivery driver with a package for the accused.
“Mr McIntosh provided his address and the messages continued that day with the accused sending messages to the 13-year-old’s profile.
“A witness took screenshots of the communications. On January 2 he and two other males travelled to Aberdeen to confront George McIntosh.
“They called the phone number provided and they proceeded to film the encounter as well as streaming it on Facebook.
“The accused stated he had been set up. The police were contacted and he was arrested.”