A Fife man was caught sending sexualised messages to decoy social media accounts posing as 13-year-old girls.
Connor Webster was snared by two different members Child Safety Online in January 2019.
Webster had sent sexual remarks on social media to an account he thought belonged to a 13-year-old called Tamara Dean.
However, the messages he sent between December 29, 2018 and January 22, 2019 were actually to an adult.
Between January 3 and 13 in 2019, the 23-year-old sent social media messages containing sexual remarks who he thought as 13-year-old Layla Hardy.
In fact, these messages were being received by another adult member of the same paedophile hunter group.
Webster, now of Lumphinnans, sent the messages from his former address in Somerville Street, Burntisland.
He admitted they were sent intentionally for the purposes or obtaining sexual gratification or humiliating, distressing or alarming his victims.
His defence solicitor David Bell told Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court: “As groups of that nature do, they have set up fake profiles. This refers to two of these.
“At the time he was 20.
“There is an indication that in one sense, he’s matured.”
Sheriff Pino Di Emidio placed Webster on the Sex Offenders Register and made him the subject of a two-year supervision order.
Webster was ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work and also instructed not to have contact with children without permission from his supervisor.
He is not allowed to clear his online search history and must make any devices with internet access available for inspection upon request.
He was also fined £250 for missing a previous court hearing.
