A Dunfermline man sent a series of sick messages to a “14-year-old girl” and tried to persuade her to travel more than 400 miles to meet him for sex.
Dale Mackie was unaware that the youngster he was talking to online was actually an adult operating a decoy social media account.
Despite repeatedly being told he was talking to a teenager, the 30-year-old pressed on with his sexualised chat.
He even acknowledged that he shouldn’t be talking to her.
Mackie was placed on the sex offenders register when he appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.
Asked ‘girl’ to skip school
Fiscal depute Mat Piskorz said that when he messaged the account, Mackie described in detail the types of sexual activity he wanted to try out with the teenager.
Throughout the exchange the responses received from the teen account – using the name Stacey Carter – were of an innocent and non-sexual nature, Mr Piskorz said.
Mackie had tried to persuade “Stacey” to skip school and travel from Cardiff to Dunfermline.
Mr Piskorz explained that the account was set up by adult Denise Somers on August 31, 2020.
“She used a photo of a consenting adult from when she was 14,” he said.
“On the same day the profile of Stacey Carter received a friend request from Dale Mackie. She accepted but did not initiate conversation”.
He said that later that evening Mackie started messaging the account. His messages quickly turning to the subject of sex.
He asked the girl what things she liked to do and if she would like him to “play” with her.
When she innocently responded that she liked computer games he became more explicit.
He also told her “I bet you have a sexy body” and suggested places they could go to have sex.
He later told her she could get a train from Cardiff to Edinburgh to meet up, telling her “don’t go to school”.
Paedophile hunters
Ms Somers’ reasons for setting up the decoy account were not detailed in court.
But Mackie’s arrest was trumpeted by West Lothian-based online paedophile hunting team STS.
The group shared an image of Mackie on its Facebook page in November 2020 and stated he had been arrested and charged.
The post said: “Dale was not stung due to the location he resided”.
Mackie, of Mackie Place, Dunfermline, admitted a charge of trying to engage in sexual communication with a social media account he believed belonged to a child.
He further pleaded guilty to attempting to meet with the operator of the account, still believing she was a child.
Mackie admitted that from a property in Cowdenbeath or elsewhere, he tried to meet with the girl for the purposes of then or afterwards engaging in unlawful sexual activity with her or in her presence.
Sentence was deferred for background reports.
