A Perth grandfather who danced topless for a paedophile hunter posing as a 13-year-old schoolgirl has been placed on the Sex Offender Register.
Ex-railway worker James Kettles was found guilty of attempting to communicate indecently with a child after sending off a series of sickening messages to an online decoy called Ruby.
The 63-year-old tried to battle the allegations, claiming he knew all along he was talking to an adult – despite “Ruby” repeatedly telling him she was 13.
He even tried to convince a jury that he was trying to turn the tables on the paedophile hunters.
He said when he repeatedly asked “Ruby” for photos of herself in school uniform, he was trying to force the decoy operator to reveal her true age.
Convicted
The jury at Perth Sheriff Court took just over half an hour to unanimously find Kettles guilty of intentionally and for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification – or to humiliate, distress or alarm – sending sexual written communications to the hunter behind the Catfish-style Ruby account, believing she was a 13-year-old.
The court heard that after several weeks of chats, between August and October 2019, a group of around 12 members of the Forbidden Scotland paedophile hunter group descended on Kettles’ home in Perth.
During the livestreamed sting, great-grandfather Kettles appears to confess to his crime and pledges to close down his accounts.
‘Disgusted’ with himself
Entering the witness box on day three of his trial at Perth Sheriff Court, Kettles sobbed as he told how being targeted by paedophile hunters had impacted his life.
He said he was forced to resign from his job as a senior technical engineer with Network Rail.
The father-of-two also had to quit his golf club.
The court heard he began using online dating and chatting sites in the afternoons, when his wife was at work.
He said that he had logged on to sites such as Meet4U out of boredom, but looking back felt “disgusted” by some of the messages he had posted.
Kettles claimed he knew that Ruby was an adult because it was an over-18s website.
“I’ve read the terms and conditions,” he said.
Asked why he called her a “naughty girl” and asked her if her mum knew she was on the site, he said: “It was to force them out and to prove what I knew from day one, that this was someone mucking about and having a laugh at my expense.”
Denied he thought the decoy was a child
At several times throughout his evidence, he told jurors: “At no point did I think I was speaking with a child.”
Fiscal depute Michael Sweeney asked him: “You repeatedly asked for photos of this person in a school uniform.
“Why did you not just say to her: I know you’re an adult?”
Kettles replied: “I was trying to get them to go to another room, send a picture and confirm who I was talking to.”
A log of messages between Kettles and Ruby ran to nearly 30 pages.
They included explicit question from him about periods and male and female genitals.
At one point, he tried to encourage Ruby to get her schoolfriends involved in the chat.
The jury was shown footage of a live-streamed video broadcast by Kettles on a dating site.
He is seen dancing topless and singing a version of the Kaiser Chiefs’ song Ruby.
The sting
Kettles said about 10 to 12 paedophile hunters came to his home in Maple Place, Perth.
“Two of them came to my door,” he said. “I was upstairs, so I opened the window and called down to them.
“They said that their car had just hit my van, so I said that I would come down for a look.”
Kettles, outside in his slippers, was livestreamed by the Forbidden Scotland team on their Facebook channel.
“I was terrified,” he said.
In the video, which was not shown to the jury, Kettles makes an apparent confession.
When asked by one of the group why he thought it was acceptable to talk to underage children online, he said: “I don’t think its acceptable.”
“Then why did you do it?” asks the hunter.
“Boredom,” Kettles replies.
Following his three day trial, Kettles visibly shook and held his head in his hands as the jury’s verdict was read out.
Sheriff William Wood placed him on the Sex Offenders Register and deferred sentence until October 29.
