A Fife football coach sent videos of himself performing a sex act, along with sexualised messages, to someone he thought was a child.
James Devine, at the time a senior figure at the John Thomson Football Academy in Cardenden, was unaware he was chatting online to an adult member of a paedophile hunter group.
Video footage posted in April shows Devine being confronted by the group on the sidelines of a sports pitch.
The clip ended with Devine being detained and placed in a police van.
The 42-year-old appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on Friday to plead guilty to attempting to cause an older child – aged between 13 and 16 – he believed was called “Becki-Rose Machan” to view a sexual image and attempting to communicate indecently with them.
Court papers say he sent photographs and videos of himself masturbating and sent indecent, sexualised and suggestive messages between February 17 and April 8 this year.
The offending took place at an address in Westfield Terrace, Bowhill, Cardenden, and elsewhere.
Devine, now living in Coatbridge, has been put on the sex offenders register ahead of sentencing next month.
Confrontation
Sheriff Keith O’Mahony deferred sentencing on Devine until January 15 to obtain background reports and his bail was continued meantime.
Defence lawyer Jaclyn Robertson told the court that Devine has had to move address “several times for his own safety” as a consequence of this case.
A full narrative of the circumstances will be read in open court at the next hearing.
It is understood Devine was head coach of John Thomson Football Academy in Cardenden.
The football club was set up in 2023 to train the next generation of youths and is named after the famous Celtic goalkeeper from the town.
Members of a group known as Child Protection Team UK confronted Devine in a video at the sports ground in April this year.
In the footage shared by the group, a woman can be heard telling Devine he had been speaking to a “14-year-old lassie”.
The woman says he is a married man with children, adding: “You’ve got no words because you know what you’ve done is wrong”.
She goes on to say that he coaches a football team with children.
Head in hands
Devine could be heard asking to leave but was told he had to wait as someone had phoned 999 and police were on their way.
He is seen shaking his head throughout the exchange and put his head in his hands as he talked to the group.
Devine was initially reported to West Yorkshire Police before inquiries were passed to their colleagues in Scotland.
He was arrested and charged in connection with the indecent communications offences in mid-April.
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