Jail for pervert who sent vile sexual images to girls as young as 10

A “weird” north-east pervert who sent vile sexual images to girls as young as 10 has been jailed.

Callum Findlay, who was caught after a mum posed as a 14-year-old girl on Snapchat to help snare him, was sentenced by Sheriff Graham Buchanan who deemed the offences too serious to be dealt with any other way.

The 27-year-old had used Snapchat to take sexual images of himself which he then “fired off in all directions”.

Findlay, whose address was given in court papers as Forest Park in Stonehaven, previously pled guilty to six charges.

He admitted causing a woman to look at a sexual image without consent, causing a 10-year-old girl to look at a sexual image and causing a person he believed to be a child aged 14 to look at a sexual image.

Findlay also admitted sending written communications of a sexual nature without consent, causing two teenagers to look at a sexual image without consent, and a further charge of causing a third teen to look at a sexual image without consent.

And Findlay has now appeared back before Aberdeen Sheriff Court to be sentenced.

Defence agent Laura Gracie said: “There is acceptance by him he is aware of the ages of the complainers and continues to converse with them.

“He is finding it difficult to accept that he sent the messages to the complainers.”

Sheriff Buchanan said: “I can understand why he might have difficulty coming to terms with something which is really pretty awful.

“The impression I get from some things stated in the report is perhaps he was sending this type of material to quite a lot of people, many of whom may have been reciprocating.

“This is stuff that’s been fired off in all directions to people who he had reason to believe some of whom may be up for this sort of activity.”

Ms Gracie said: “He certainly accepts he was sending the messages to other people as well, and I understand there were messages coming back to him as well.”

The sheriff replied: “Some people are okay with it, surprisingly, and other people are not – including young children and the parents of children.”

Ms Gracie told the court Findlay had been suffering from anxiety and depression, adding: “He goes on to explain in the report that his was some sort of release for him but has come to terms this is clearly not an appropriate use of his time and he does make reference to wanting to try and stop it completely.

“He’s now in an online relationship with a female aged 23. She resides in America.”

Sheriff Buchanan said: “It probably involves the sort of stuff that got him into all this trouble, quite unhealthy and strange, weird, one could say.”

Addressing Findlay directly, the sheriff said: “These are serious matters. You sent these images and messages to children including one who was as young as 10.

“It needs to be clear that behaviour of this type towards children is something which the court will treat very seriously indeed.

“Given the number and nature of the charges involved in this case I have taken the view there is quite simply no suitable alternative to a sentence of imprisonment.”

He jailed Findlay for 14 months and made him subject to the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act.

At an earlier hearing, fiscal depute Felicity Merson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court: “This case involves the accused communicating with six females using the social media platform Snapchat.”

Mrs Merson said Findlay used a false name during all the interactions and never showed his full face in any of the images or videos he sent.

Between November 1, 2018 and February 28, 2019 Findlay added a 20-year-old woman on Snapchat using the fake name. She accepted and the pair “exchanged general messages” before Findlay went on to send a sexually explicit video.

Mrs Merson said: “The accused also sent her two close up images of his mouth snarling where his teeth were clearly visible.”

The woman contacted police about the incident.

Mrs Merson told the court: “On April 14, 2019 a 10-year-old girl received a Snapchat friend request from the accused using his false identity. His location settings were switched off.

“A small number of messages were exchanged.”

The court heard the girl had asked who Findlay was, and he indicated that they had mutual friends and asked her to send him a picture, which she did. The image was not indecent.

Mrs Merson said: “He responded by calling her ‘cutie’. The accused sent her an image of a young male and pretended to her that the image was of him.

“The accused confirmed that he was in high school. The girl pointed out that she was not and that she was 10 years old.”

The following day when the girl went to primary school she checked her phone and discovered a number of sexually explicit videos from Findlay and became upset.

Another mum at the school saw the girl crying and took her into the school where the girl told a teacher what had upset her. The teacher contacted the girl’s parents and they informed the police.

Later on April 15 the mum who had seen the 10-year-old girl crying was told by her own daughter, aged 14, that a male had tried to contact her on Snapchat.

Mrs Merson said: “The woman sent him a friend request from her own Snapchat account. This was immediately accepted by the user of the other account.

“They engaged in general chat, during which time the accused informed her that he was 18 years old, lived in Aberdeen and he named the secondary school he attended.

“The woman informed the accused that she was 14 years old to which he replied ‘cool’. She pretended to be 14 years old as she wished to probe why this male had contacted her daughter of that age.

“She asked the accused to send a picture of himself to see what he looked like. The accused sent the same image of a male which he had sent the 10-year-old girl.

“The woman knew the person the photo was actually of. She later warned the boy’s parents about his photo being used by this male.”

Findlay then sent a number of sexually explicit videos to the woman.

The fiscal depute said: “Between April 15 and April 17 2019 she received approximately 20 videos of this nature.”

Findlay did not show his face in the videos but a male’s voice with an Aberdeen accent could be heard making a sexual comment and referring to himself as “daddy”.

Mrs Merson said: “The woman noted that the location settings on the offending profile were turned on and indicated that the accused was in Stonehaven.

“She later attended at Queen Street Police Office and provided police with a USB stick on which she had copied the videos sent to her by the accused.”

Findlay also added three further females, two aged 16 and one 15, on Snapchat using the same false name and false picture and sent them sexually explicit videos over a number of weeks.

In messages to the 15-year-old Findlay asked to see her “pretty” face and sent vile sexual comments. She eventually disclosed what had happened to her sister who contacted the police.

Mrs Merson said: “Police, in relation to a separate matter, were provided with a telephone number which they ascertained was used by the accused.

“They established his address. Police carried out a social media search and identified an image of the accused. It was noted that the accused’s teeth in the image were the same as those in the close-up images which he had sent to one of the complainers.

“An evidential search warrant was craved and granted for the accused’s address.

“This was executed on October 28 2019. At that time police saw that the accused’s bedroom, with its particular decoration and furniture, was the room in which the videos had been filmed.

“The accused was arrested.”