A Kirkcaldy man “accidently” sent an explicit image to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl.
Nicholas Cruden was actually talking to a member of a paedophile hunting group, who had set up a fake profile, when he sent the picture of a penis.
Although the profile was on an adult dating app, Cruden was told the “girl” was only 13.
He replied “cool… as long as you’re okay”.
Contact made with decoy
Fiscal depute Eve McKaig told Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court the person behind the account was an adult with “online predator hunting team” Shattered Silence, based in West Lothian.
“Her involvement in the group is to engage in chat on dating websites,” she said.
“She presents herself as a 13-year-old from the Edinburgh area.
“She initially creates these profiles and waits to be approached.
“The witness had set up a profile on Tagged. The profile picture on the account was of a female under the age of 16.
“She was contacted by a person with the username NickC.
“She sent a message back as follows: ‘Nice to meet you’.
“The witness informed him she was 13 and he replied ‘Cool. Yeah. As long as you’re okay’.”
Explicit picture, then apology
Cruden asked for the chat to be moved to the encrypted Whatsapp service and the decoy provided a mobile number.
Ms McCaig said: “There continued to be conversation and towards the end of February on Tagged the accused sent a message saying ‘Hey, how’s you’.
“This was immediately followed by an image of a male holding an an erect penis.
“The male’s face was not visible in the image.
“There was no sexual conversation prior to this.”
The accused then sent a message saying “Didn’t realise I sent that pic. Whoops.”
Cruden was later reported to the police and when arrested, told officers: “It wasn’t me”.
Struggling in lockdown
Solicitor David bell, defending, said the accused had sent a single image and there was no conversation that was sexual or even flirtatious.
He said: “It came out of the blue and was followed by an almost apologetic response.
“He lost his wife in 2019 following a six-year battle with motor neurone disease.
“He’s struggled to deal with that and through lockdown he was struggling.
“He was consuming prescribed medication at over the prescribed dose.”
He said the paedophile hunter group did not confront Cruden for a sting but did post online claiming he had already pled guilty to the offence, which was not true at the time.
The post included his address, which resulted in his car being damaged.
Cruden, 47, admitted attempting to cause a child to view a sexual image at and address in the village of Dornie between February 1 and February 28 2021.
Sentence was deferred until next month and Cruden was put on the Sex Offenders Register in the interim.
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