A paedophile sent what he thought was a 12-year-old girl pornographic images and told her: “If I was your dad I’d tuck you in every night.”
Cameron MacKinnon was snared by a vigilante paedophile hunter group, who set up an online profile posing as a young girl.
The 64-year-old contacted the “child” and made highly inappropriate sexual comments and asked intimate questions, including about school.
But MacKinnon was brought to justice when the group, Scotland’s Child Protection Team, tracked him down and confronted him, livestreaming the encounter while waiting for police to arrive.
Fiscal depute Claire Stewart told Aberdeen Sheriff Court MacKinnon contacted the decoy child and asked for her number to chat on Whatsapp.
‘He also sent pictures of himself’
In the first few messages, the decoy child made clear she was only 12, but MacKinnon was not put off. He even commented that he was old enough to be her father.
Over a number of weeks, MacKinnon became “more familiar” with the child.
He began calling her “honey” and, chillingly, said: “If I was your dad I’d tuck you in every night.”
The fiscal told the court: “He also sent pictures of himself and requested pictures of her, to which the complainer sent him pictures filtered to give the appearance of a female child.”
MacKinnon asked the child to delete photographs and went on to quiz her about the clothes she wears and her “body shape”.
He questioned her about her hormones and asked if she’d “had her period yet”.
Additionally, he sent the girl photos of women in various states of undress, including pornographic images of females with piercings to their nipples and private parts.
‘I will come and tuck you in’
MacKinnon brought up the subject of prostitutes and suggested the child Google the term.
He also asked what she had learned in sex education at school.
In amongst a catalogue of disturbing messages, MacKinnon said: “I will come and tuck you in and kiss your forehead goodnight.”
As the conversation went on, he sent the decoy a photograph of a sex toy and asked if she had a pet name for her private parts.
Eventually, MacKinnon brought up the subject of meeting, and sent the child his location, enabling the group to trace him.
MacKinnon, of Calderpark Avenue, Lochwinnoch, pled guilty to attempting to communicate sexually with a young child and cause them to view sexual images.
The offence was committed between June 1 and 30 this year at a location within Aberdeen and elsewhere.
Sheriff Donald Ferguson deferred sentence for reports and placed MacKinnon on the sex offenders register in the meantime.
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