A Fife paedophile caught with hundreds of sick files after being unmasked by vigilante hunters has avoided imprisonment.
30-year-old Matthew Grigg sent a barrage of sexually explicit messages to a person he thought was a 13-year-old girl.
He was actually communicating online with an adult paedophile hunter.
Police later arrested him at his home and seized computers containing more than 320 child abuse images and 47 videos.
Grigg, of Durie Park, Burntisland, previously appeared in the dock to plead guilty to his crimes.
This week, he was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for three years and made subject to a court curfew.
‘Desensitisation’
Solicitor Kerr Sneddon told Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court: “He’s a relatively young man with nothing outstanding and nothing having gone before in terms of criminal convictions.
“Ultimately, something has gone wrong in his life, whether it’s the desensitisation or him being lonely with some degree of mental health issue that needs to be addressed.
“He isn’t unintelligent.
“He does have stable accommodation and a supportive family.
“There clearly is an alternative to custody identified.
“I think in this case, Mr Grigg will do exactly what your Lordship tells him to and won’t put a foot wrong.
“He wasn’t going to meet anybody, it was a decoy he was communicating with.”
Fife man given curfew
Sheriff Robert More imposed a community payback order and Grigg will be supervised by social workers for three years.
He must also complete the Moving Forward: Making Changes project, aimed at rehabilitating sex offenders.
The sheriff also imposed a 9pm to 6am curfew, keeping Grigg indoors for the next 140 nights.
He made the order as an alternative to imprisonment and noted Grigg’s co-operation with proceedings.
Sheriff More said: “The offences you pled guilty to were of the gravity that a sentence of imprisonment would be appropriate.
“However, you have no previous convictions.
“I’ve reached the conclusion there is an alternative here.
“If nothing else, it seems given the difficulties I do consider you have, it would be preferable and in the public interest that you be rehabilitated.
“In these circumstances were a breach established, in all likelihood you’ll be sent to jail.”
Fife man caught after paedophile hunter sting
Prosecutor Lee-Anne Barclay previously told the court screenshots of conversations between the decoy child and Grigg were passed to a member of Forbidden Scotland, a vigilante group which targets sexual predators.
She said Grigg engaged the decoy in a chat on an unknown platform and they told him they were 13 years old.
Their chat began about various general subjects, including summer holidays and tattoos.
During the conversation about tattoos, Grigg said: “Tattoos are like sex, your first time hurts like f*** then you get addicted to wanting more, haha”.
The chat later moved to WhatsApp.
There, Grigg began messaging the decoy with explicit sexual details and asked for a “picture of your privates”.
Charges
Numerous other explicit messages were received by the decoy from Grigg’s mobile number.
A witness from the vigilante group later went Grigg’s home and confirmed he lived there.
Police attended shortly after and arrested him.
He admitted attempting to communicate indecently with a person he believed to be 13-year-old child between July 6 and 12 last year.
This was done intentionally and for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification or humiliating, distressing or alarming the person he believed to be a child.
Grigg also admitted possessing child abuse material between March 2019 and August 2022 at an address in Lochgelly.
Various computers were examined for child sexual abuse material.
A total of 321 images and 47 videos were found on two of the devices. Of those, 27 images and 24 videos were classed as category A – the most graphic kind.
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