A man who was found guilty of sending an indecent image of himself to an underage girl online has been placed on the sex offender’s register for three years.
Scott Gerrard faced accusations that he chatted to a 13-year-old decoy called ‘Ruby’ and sent her a picture of his private parts despite knowing she was a child.
A trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard the 35-year-old chatted to the decoy account for months after it was created by a member of a paedophile hunter group.
Despite evidence that Gerrard had shared a number of personal details, he maintained he was a victim of catfishing – when a stranger steals someone’s identity online.
Gerrard insisted that an American woman known as “Gwen” had stolen his identity and personal images of him and it was actually her who was chatting to the decoy.
During the trial, fiscal depute Sean Ambrose described Gerrard’s claims as “spurious”.
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin later found Gerrard guilty of one charge that he caused a person he believed to be under the age of 16 to view an image of an indecent and sexual nature and attempt to communicate indecently with a child.
She told Gerrard she didn’t find his catfishing claim to be “credible”.
The fiscal depute described a private online chat between ‘Ruby’ and ‘Scotty’ that began on July 5 2020 and ended on September 3 2020.
The chat log showed that ‘Scotty’ was aware of the age of the decoy teenager prior to sending unsolicited sexual messages.
He then asked the 13-year-old decoy if she would like to see his private parts before forwarding an image of himself.
One message from Scotty to the girl stated: “Would you like to see it, maybe? Would it make me a paedo if I did?”
Accused feels ‘shame and embarrassment’
Prior to Gerrard being sentenced, defence agent Liam McAllister described his client’s behaviour as “deeply disturbing” and that it has had an impact on his family.
He added that Gerrard feels “shame and embarrassment” in relation to his crimes.
Sheriff McLaughlin sentenced Gerrard, of Garthdee, to a community payback order with supervision for three years and ordered him to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
She also ordered him to take part in a sex offenders’ programme and placed him on the sex offender’s register for three years.
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