A pensioner has been placed on the sex offenders register after sending sexual messages to paedophile hunters posing as children online.
Raymond Paterson thought he was communicating with teenagers aged from 13 to 15.
He complimented their underwear, gave instructions on how to pleasure themselves and sent messages saying what he wanted to do with them.
But all of the profiles were being operated by adult volunteers at online child protection organisations.
They subsequently organised a sting operation and handed their files to police.
The pensioner appeared before Inverness Sheriff Court to admit four charges of attempting to communicate indecently with an older child.
Volunteers operated decoy profiles
Fiscal depute Susan Love told the court that, between March and June 2023 Paterson sent messages to various decoy profiles.
The court heard that the messages – examples of which were provided for the sheriff but not read in court – included Paterson asking the decoys “if they shaved”.
He also complimented their underwear, gave “instructions on how to pleasure themselves” and sent messages saying what he wanted to do with them.
The volunteers collated the messages and then visited Paterson’s Inverness home.
He was confronted by the volunteers on June 11 last year, before police were called.
Paterson was cautioned and arrested and his phone seized, with the conversations recorded by the decoy operators later being recovered.
The 70-year-old was taken to Burnett Road police station in Inverness, where he admitted messaging the decoys but stated that he “never intended to physically meet them”.
Pensioner was ‘overtaken’ by ‘malaise’
Solicitor advocate Shahid Latif, told the court that the charges related to a “20-day period of 2023” where a “malaise had overtaken” his client.
He told the sheriff that the accused was a first offender.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank called for reports and placed Paterson on the sex offenders register with immediate effect – the eventual length of registration to be determined at sentencing.
The case will call again next month and Paterson, of Kenneth Street, Inverness, was bailed to appear at that hearing.
