A Tayside Tesco manager who sent explicit photos to children on social media has been spared a prison sentence.
Perth paedophile Steven Gibson trawled through Facebook accounts to find young girls in his area and then posed as a child to entice them into a SnapChat group.
The 50-year-old shared obscene images of cartoon Family Guy with the 12 and 13-year-olds, and pestered one girl for sex.
His online campaign, which went on for more than four weeks, was reported to police after he shared an image of a naked penis.
‘Breached the custody threshold’
Gibson, 50, returned to the dock at Perth Sheriff Court on Monday, having earlier pled guilty to five charges of sending sexual communications to children on Snapchat between May 27 and June 30, 2019.
He was told his offence was so serious it could merit a prison sentence.
Instead, Gibson, of Mailer Way, Perth, was ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work – the maximum sentence of its kind available to the sheriff.
He was placed on supervision for three years and ordered to take part in the Moving Forward, Making Changes programme for sex criminals.
He will stay on the Sex Offenders Register for three years.
‘Extremely distressing’ for victims
Sheriff Gillian Wade told him: “These are extremely serious offences.
“This would have been extremely distressing for the children involved, who were all of a young age.”
However, she said she accepted a background report which found Gibson was at “low to moderate” risk of reoffending.
Solicitor Ross Donnelly, representing Gibson, said: “He is well aware that this is an offence that merits a custodial sentence.
“He knows the custody threshold has been breached.”
Family Guy meme
The court heard Gibson, who was said to be living with his partner-of-10-years at a hearing last month, has now moved in with his mother.
Fiscal depute Rebecca Kynaston previously told the court Gibson operated a SnapChat account called ‘My Name Is’.
She said: “He was not known personally to any of the children but they were all known to each other as they attended the same school in the Dundee area.
“In 2018, they became involved in a group chat called ‘Keep It 12A’.
“The accused was a member and was believed to have originally created the group.”
Mrs Kynaston said Gibson posted a meme of a Family Guy character performing a solo sex act, with the words: “Who’s pumping?”
When one girl told Gibson the image was not welcome, he replied with further obscenities.
He then sent an image of cartoon characters having sex before sending a picture of a penis and another vile message.
Gibson asked one girl to have sex and then pestered her again when she failed to respond.
He then posted a photoshopped image of a female with a male penis over her face.
Reported to police
The children reported the activity to police and Gibson was traced by his user name.
The court heard he was “uncomfortable and nervous” while officers carried out a search of the family home.
Mrs Kynaston said: “His mobile phone contained screenshots of Facebook pages of young females in the Dundee, Angus and Perth area.”
She said several of the pages had the user’s SnapChat details on them.
