A Stonehaven man who was snared by an undercover police officer posing as a 12-year-old boy has been tagged and given community service.
Luke Craddock avoided jail after admitting three charges of having indecent images of children, distributing some of those pictures and enticing a child to look at indecent images.
Some of the disturbing images were considered to be in the most serious category.
The court heard 27-year-old Craddock thought he was messaging a 12-year-old boy named Samuel during a week in May 2023, but it was a covert police officer.
The officer had been deployed onto messaging platform Kik to find users who had a sexual interest in children, fiscal depute Kirsty Martin said.
Sickening messages
She described how the undercover cop had told Craddock on a group chat that he was 12 years old and they began private messaging.
The chat quickly turned sexual, the court heard, and Craddock sent a sexually explicit video of a child to the officer.
Ms Martin went on to say that between May 11 and 18 2023 Craddock continued to exchange various messages with ‘Samuel’.
“Within these messages [Craddock] discussed a desire to engage in sexual activity with the witness and sent various sexual images and videos depicting males engaged in penetrative sexual activity.
Craddock also sent images and videos of himself in a state of undress while carrying out a sex act.
He also requested videos from ‘Samuel’ stating that he wanted to see his private parts so that he could imagine that they were both together.
Paedophile confronted at work
Police went to confront Craddock at his place of work on June 22 2023 and they seized his phone.
Ms Martin said two category A videos, lasting just over a minute, were found and featuring boys estimated to be aged between 10 and 14.
The following year, on March 30 2024, Craddock was arrested in relation to another matter and a further phone was recovered.
She said: “That phone was found to have files containing child sexual exploitation and abuse material.
“In total 27 still images and four videos were recovered from this device. Five images and one video were graded Category A, three images and three videos were graded Category B, 19 images were graded as category C.
“The images and videos featured boys estimated to be between 7 and 14 years of age.”
‘Working with sexual psychotherapists’
Craddock’s defence solicitor Ian Woodward-Nutt said his client lives with and is “in part” the carer for his grandmother and suffers from anxiety and depression.
He told the court that Craddock, who has been diagnosed autistic and suffers from ADHD, accepted these were “serious offences” and he had been getting therapy.
“He has been working with sexual psychotherapists,” Mr Woodward-Nutt explained.
“There is evidence that this will be beneficial and likely to reduce further risk of re-offending.”
Sheriff Ian Wallace said Craddock had pled guilty to “very serious” sexual offences in relation to children and they were committed “despite the issues you suffer from”.
He said: “I do take into account your mental health and disorders. But I must ensure public safety in the future.”
As a direct alternative to custody, Sheriff Wallace placed Craddock under supervision for three years and ordered him to carry out program work to address his sexual offending.
Craddock was also ordered to carry out 260 hours of unpaid work and placed on a Restriction of Liberty Order for eight months in which he cannot leave his home address between the hours of 7pm and 6am.
Sheriff Wallace also made a further order under the Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years meaning Craddock is also forbidden to make contact with anyone under the age of 16, be near schools, nurseries, or playgrounds, or leisure or recreation facilities without prior approval from the police.
Craddock, of Forest Park, Stonehaven, was placed on the Sex Offender’s Register and made subject to its notification requirements.