A Fife pensioner was spared a prison term for sick internet chats because his “victim” was a paedophile-hunting decoy rather than a real schoolgirl.
75-year-old Ronald Fyfe from Cairneyhill was sentenced for sending sexual online messages to someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl.
Fyfe asked to meet up with the girl in Edinburgh and said he would take her back to his home.
Fyfe later said he was trying to give the internet hunters ” a bit of a run around” because he was bored.
‘Fortunate’ not to go to prison
Fyfe, of Greycraigs, was convicted at Dunfermline Sheriff Court after a trial last month.
He was found guilty of, between September 1 and October14 2020, sending sexual messages to someone he believed to be young girl and thereby attempting to communicate indecently with a child.
The sheriff sentenced the first-offender to a community payback order with 18 months of supervision and 120 hours of unpaid work.
Fyfe has also been put on the sex offenders register for 18 months.
Sheriff James MacDonald told him: “It is fortunate for you that, unknown to you, this was a ruse.
“If it was a conversation with a real 13-year-old girl, prison would have been inevitable.”
Family loss punishment
Fyfe thought he was sending messages to a 13-year-old girl called ‘Isla’ but it was in fact a decoy – a 37-year-old woman.
In his explicit messages Fyfe said he would carry out sex acts on the girl.
He asked her to keep their chats secret and suggested they should meet up in Princes Street, Edinburgh, to get something to eat then return together to his home.
He later admitted to police he got sexual gratification from the chats saying: “It did turn me on slightly, talking like that.”
Fyfe claimed in his court evidence he knew he was being set up by the decoy and had been stringing them along.
He said he continued the chat: “To give then a bit of a run around.
“It was giving me something to do, keeping me busy.”
At trial, Sheriff Macdonald dismissed Fyfe’s story as “a pack of lies”.
Defence solicitor Alan Davie said his client had already paid a high price for his actions, having not seen his son or grandchildren since the allegations emerged.
His marriage was also now strained and he lost contact with his younger brother.
He added, “He’s never been in trouble before.”
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