A Highland man who was caught in an online paedophile hunter sting has been ordered to complete a programme for sex offenders.
John Floydd, 68, sent sexual messages from his hospital bed to a volunteer decoy posing as a 13-year-old girl.
The messages instructed her to perform a solo sex act and asked for a topless photo.
He has now been ordered to participate in a programme for sexual offenders as part of a community payback order with three years of supervision.
At an earlier hearing, fiscal depute Naomi-Duffy Welsh said a witness working as a decoy for Saving Children’s Futures had reported Floydd to police.
Man messaged decoy on chat app
She explained how the volunteer set up a profile posing as a 13-year-old, which Floydd contacted on January 5 of last year.
Using the name Floydie55 on an app called ChatHour, he acknowledged the witness’s assertion that they were 13 years old.
The decoy then gave Floydd a phone number and received a text message from him.
The pair spoke about Floydd living in Scotland and the ‘child’s’ school during a conversation the prosecution said clearly showed he was “under the impression that he was speaking to a child.”
The chat then moved to another app called Telegram where “it progressed to the accused making sexualised comments”.
Floyd spoke to the decoy about “touching herself” and gave instructions on performing a solo sex act, before telling her he was “imagining her rubbing herself”.
He also asked the ‘child’ to send him a topless picture, referred to her being naked and made sexually explicit remarks.
Confronted by vigilantes
The decoy operator reported the matter to the police and found out Floydd’s home address.
A team of vigilantes then confronted Floydd, who the charge indicates was in Migdale Hospital at the time some of the messaging took place, at his Muirfield Drive home in Brora.
The sting was live-streamed over social media on February 6 of last year.
Police were called and Floydd arrested, his house searched and devices seized.
When interviewed by police, Floydd “spoke freely and admitted communication with the decoy and being aware of her age”.
Solicitor Marc Dickson, for Floydd, addressed this week’s sentencing hearing at Inverness Sheriff Court.
He said his client was an isolated individual who had been admitted to hospital at the time of his crimes and had been accessing the internet using a mobile phone.
‘Serious and unpleasant’
Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald told Floydd: “This is a really serious offence and unpleasant conduct.”
She warned him: “This is something that you must move away from, otherwise you will find yourself, at some point, in jail.”
On this occasion, however, the sheriff placed Floydd on a community payback order with three years supervision.
She also made a requirement for him to participate in the Moving Forward 2 Change programme for sex offenders.
The sheriff also ordered him to allow inspection of his devices and told him he must not delete his internet history, warning him that, if he failed to comply, he could be sent to jail instead.