A father who sent dozens of messages and graphic sexual pictures to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl has been banned from contact with children.
Warehouse operator Antony O’Hare spent months grooming the ‘teenager’ online but had no idea he was being duped by a vigilante group.
The profile was not a real person but had been created by the paedophile hunter group to snare sex offenders.
Sentencing Sheriff Alistair Carmichael said: “It is a serious set of events here and it is something which falls in the custodial zone because of the gravity of the offence.”
However, he noted O’Hare had no previous convictions and placed him under social work supervision for three years.
He also imposed a conduct requirement banning him from contact with children and limiting his internet use.
Age of ‘girl’ made clear from start
Dundee Sheriff Court heard ‘Zoe’ was an online profile created by an adult member of a hunter group and they built up a dossier of evidence against 53-year-old father O’Hare.
They identified him after he sent a picture showing his face, with his dog, near his home in Strathmore Avenue, Forfar.
Fiscal depute Michael Sweeney told the court: “This is effectively a paedophile hunter case.
“The decoy works for Forbidden Scotland and posed as a 13-year-old girl.
“The age was made known to the accused at the start.
“The chats went on for months and the conversation became increasingly sexualised as time went on.
“Images and videos he sent were all taken at his home address.”
Mr Sweeney said O’Hare identified himself as being in his 50s and was not deterred by ‘Zoe’ repeatedly telling him she was only 13-years-old.
For a period of around four months, he continued to communicate with the decoy and suggested they could get a room together to have sexual contact.
“He asked her to wrap herself up for Christmas so he could unwrap her and everything could come off,” Mr Sweeney told the court.
He asked for naked pictures and made further lewd suggestions.
House raided
The court was told O’Hare followed ‘Zoe’ across several social media platforms to continue having illicit contact from September 30 2020 until February 7 2021.
O’Hare admitted trying to communicate indecently with a child and having indecent images – of children as young as five – between March 29 2020 and February 19 2021.
The court was told that when his home was raided, O’Hare told police: “I’ve been asked for images and I’ve sent them.
“I’m not going to lie about it.”
