A SELF-PROCLAIMED paedophile hunter used a young girl’s phone to solicit sick child abuse images from other perverts.
Stevan Hogg took the girl’s phone and into an online messaging service where he had a succession of horrific child porn images sent to him by another user.
The girl later discovered the phone was missing. She looked through it and found the disturbing messages before immediately alerting her mother.
Police attended and saw the five pictures – then analysed computers found at the address and discovered “concerning” web searches for child porn terms.
Hogg then told cops he would “lead paedophiles on” on the internet – before “pretending he was a police officer to scare them”.
Fiscal depute Eilidh Robertson told Dundee Sheriff Court: “He said it was an addiction – that he was addicted to scaring people.
“He accepted the searches were made by him on the computer but said it was because he wanted to pretend to be a police officer to scare paedophiles.
“He was asked about his conversations with the unknown person who sent him the images and him asking them to send more photos.
“He said he was doing it to lure them in.
“He said he was sick in the head when he was drinking and said he wants to view rape and murder images.”
Miss Robertson added: “When the girl found the messages on the phone she shouted her mother and was shaking and crying.
“She saw the indecent images on the phone and the accused was then confronted.”
Hogg, 23, of Ward Road, Dundee, pleaded guilty on indictment to charges of taking or making indecent images of children on June 14 last year, breaching bail on January 25 this year and failing to attend at court for a hearing on March 24 this year.
Defence solicitor Gregor Sim asked that Hogg not be placed on the sex offender’s register as it may be argued there was “no significant sexual element” to his crime.
Sheriff Alistair Carmichael deferred sentence until next month for social work background reports. Hogg was placed on the sex offender’s register ahead of his sentencing date.
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