An Aberdeen man who attempted to meet a 12-year-old schoolgirl for sex has been jailed after paedophile hunters confronted him at a bus stop.
William Gauld was on his way to meet what he thought was a child called Demi – but it was actually a sting operation.
Gauld, 42, sent the girl numerous sexually explicit messages – most of which are too disturbing to report – before arranging to meet her off a bus in Aberdeen.
Messages soon turned sexual
Fiscal depute Andrew McMann told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that two decoy profiles of girls had been set up by members of the paedophile hunter group Against Sexual Abuse Scotland.
In January 2021 the profile of ‘Isabel’ received a message on the Meetme dating app from Gauld, with the decoy soon after stating that she was 13 years old.
Gauld replied asking if she was happy speaking to a 38-year-old before moving the conversation to WhatsApp and sending her a picture of himself and his dogs.
The conversation soon turned sexual, with Gauld suggesting they play a game where they could ask each other anything.
As part of this, he asked her if she had ever carried out a sexual act on herself, before encouraging her to start doing it.
He then sent a graphic sexual message intimating that he would like to have sex with her.
Gauld was messaging second ‘girl’
The conversation petered out between the pair, however, Gauld had already begun messaging with another girl called ‘Demi’, who told him she was almost 13 years old.
After some general chat, the conversation became increasingly sexual, with Gauld speaking of her becoming his girlfriend and asking her what she was wearing.
Gauld stated that she had “sexy legs”, discussed kissing with tongues and stated that he wanted to be her teacher to “show her things”.
He also suggested that they share intimate pictures with each other.
In May or June 2023, Gauld sent her a lengthy story that described various sexual activities involving both himself and Demi.
After this, he encouraged her to look up the activities he had described and watch videos about them.
Around the same time, Gauld messaged Demi and asked her to come to his house and requested a photograph of her.
A picture was sent of a girl who was clearly under 16 years of age, however, Gauld went on to state that he “would like to be with her and do things with her”.
Shortly after this, Gauld suggested that she should “skive school”, watch a movie with him and “cuddle”.
He told her to bring a change of clothes with her when she came to his house in case things got “dirty”.
The decoy operator at this point passed on Gauld’s details to Child Protection Team UK and a sting operation was planned for June 6 2023, the date when Gauld arranged for Demi to come to his house
“Members of Child Protection Team UK arranged to travel to Aberdeen on this date to carry out the sting,” Mr McMann told the court.
“The accused gave Demi his address, told her which bus to get and arranged to meet her on the main road close to his house.
“At this point, the members of the team recognised him from the pictures he had sent and confronted him.
“They thereafter contacted the police who attended, arrested the accused and seized his mobile phone which was examined and, together with the vast array of messages provided by the two decoys, further evidenced the accused as the perpetrator of these offences.”
In the dock, Gauld pleaded guilty to two charges of communicating with a child and third charge of using coercion to encourage them to travel for the purpose of unlawful sexual activity.
Sheriff says accused’s actions went ‘beyond’
Defence solicitor Sian Grant told the court that her client suffers from severe anxiety and rarely leaves his home, suggesting it was “perhaps why this offence was committed”.
“He sought companionship online,” she said, adding that Gauld had initially started chatting with adult women but that it had “developed” into seeking out children online.
“Mr Gauld has had time to think about the impact of his actions and if this had actually been a child.
“He has been able to reflect on the reasons he did what he did and the impact on society as a wider principle.”
16 months behind bars
Sheriff Philip Mann told Gauld that communicating indecently with children is a “very serious offence”.
“It’s neither here nor there that they were adults pretending to be children – and this went quite a bit beyond that, as you agreed to meet one of the girls for sex.”
Telling Gauld his offences were “serious enough to meet the custodial threshold”, Sheriff Mann jailed him for 16 months.
He also placed Gauld, of Cummings Park Road, Aberdeen, on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
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