An Elgin man snared by paedophile hunters posing as 13-year-old girls online has been convicted and placed on the sex offenders register.
Ailean Kerr sent explicit images to the decoy profiles, asking one: “You hairy or smooth down below?”
He told the other: “Don’t say, but you make me horny.”
Kerr, 48, had denied two charges of attempting to cause an older child to view sexual images and attempting to communicate indecently with an older child between November 2020 and January 2021 during a trial at Inverness Sheriff Court.
However, the vigilante operators of the decoy profiles took to the witness box to give compelling evidence against the sick pervert.
Court hears details of sick messages sent to ‘teens’
They told the court how Kerr contacted profiles they had set up for the sting on the dating app Mingle.
Photos of themselves altered with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology made them appear child-like.
Both witnesses informed Kerr they were only 13 years old soon after he made contact with them – despite their online profiles stating adult ages.
In evidence led by fiscal depute Emily Hood the women, who were members of a volunteer group calling themselves Shatter the Silence, detailed how Kerr had called them “sexy”.
He had asked both of them to send pictures of themselves and told one: “I want to c** looking at you.”
He also asked other questions, including: “Do you like d***s then?” and “You hairy or smooth down below?”
Paedophile caught red-handed tells police he was ‘investigating scammers’
After being told that one of the “girls” was in Edinburgh, Kerr made references to travelling to meet her, stating: “To see you naked, definitely worth the trip.”
The decoy operators gathered screenshots of the conversations, which they passed to the police.
When questioned, Kerr admitted sending the messages and images, – some of which subsequent investigations found stored on his devices, but denied it was sexually motivated.
Giving evidence in his own defence, Kerr told the court that he had never believed the profiles were being operated by real children.
Questioned by his defence agent Clara Smeaton, Kerr said he had been conducting an “investigation” and contacted them because he suspected they were “scammers”.
Jury’s disbelief at sex offender’s version of events seals conviction
He claimed the use of pictures of children on a site that required users to be over 18, coupled with discrepancies in their listed locations and how they were displayed on the app, were “red flags” that had caught his interest.
“That proves that they weren’t who they said they were. That’s what gave me the start to investigate,” he told the court.
“You check everything. You accept nothing – that’s what I was doing,” he added.
However, a jury took under two hours to reject his version of events, unanimously finding him guilty of both charges.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank placed Kerr, of Beechfield Road, Elgin, on the sex offenders register with immediate effect.
He called for the preparation of pre-sentencing reports before the next hearing in October.
Kerr was released on bail in the meantime.
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