A Fife paedophile had more than 50 unsolicited photos of schoolgirls and stashed hundreds of sick child abuse images and videos on his phones, a court has heard.
Alexander Hope’s devices were seized by police after he was caught sending sexual messages to a person he thought was a 13-year-old girl.
The 38-year-old was actually speaking to an adult from a paedophile hunter group, pretending to be a child.
At Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, Sheriff Krista Johnston described Hope’s offending as “very serious” and noted he has a “record of previous offending of a similar nature”.
The sheriff told him: “It’s most likely, therefore, you will be dealt with by a considerable custodial sentence”.
The charges
Hope appeared in the dock from custody to plead guilty to four charges.
Between July 7 and August 5 last year at his then-home address in Fodbank View, Dunfermline, he attempted to cause a child to view a sexual image and attempted to communicate indecently with them.
He sent sexually explicit images, videos and messages to a person he believed to be a 13-year-old.
Between April 15 and June 29 last year at the same address and elsewhere he behaved in a threatening or abuse manner, likely to cause fear or alarm, by taking pictures of female children without their knowledge or permission.
And between November 1 2023 and August 14 last year took or permitted to be taken or made indecent photos or pseudo photos of children.
Sick chats
Prosecutor Sarah Smith told the court Hope initiated contact with a profile on Facebook, set up by a woman from the online paedophile hunter group Fuse UK.
The decoy told him straight away she was 13 and spoke about being at school.
Hope said she looked older and “really hot” and said a lot of boys would find her sexy.
The conversation continued in general terms but Hope sent sexual messages such as “bet you looked super sexy sunbathing” and “do you watch racy vids”.
More sexually explicit messages followed, including a video.
On August 14 last year, a group of paedophile hunters went to Hope’s then-home and recorded the confrontation on Facebook live.
Police were contacted and Hope was arrested.
After being booked into custody he asked if he “would be going back to Glenochil,” the fiscal said.
‘Porn phone’
Four mobile phones were seized in a search of his home.
One contained 194 files depicting child sexual exploitation and abuse, including 38 videos and 45 images rated the most graphic category A kind.
Another phone, designated on a piece of paper recovered in the search as “porn phone,” was found to contain 698 child abuse files.
Of these, 274 videos and 111 images were classed as category A.
The total runtime of the videos was 12 hours and 44 minutes.
The children depicted were aged between four and 14.
A third phone was used to take 51 images of schoolgirls in uniform, the court heard.
In the images the girls depicted are fully clothed and unaware they are being photographed.
The court heard they appeared to have been taken from a window.
Prison warning
Sheriff Johnston warned Hope he would likely receive a custodial sentence but called for a background report to consider risk assessment and post-release supervision orders.
Sentencing was deferred until May 8 at Dunfermline Sheriff Court and Hope was remanded and put on the sex offenders register.
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