A young Orcadian who sought to groom a 13-year-old girl was brought to justice by a paedophile hunter group.
Jonathan Moody tried to arrange a date after a series of online chats during which he sent an indecent picture.
But Kirkwall Sheriff Court heard that the 24-year-old was the target of a sting operation.
Fiscal depute Sue Foard said Moody had, in fact, been chatting with an adult male member of an online paedophile hunter group.
The group member had posed as a 13-year-old called Jessica on the Meet4U dating site.
Ms Foard said he had been given consent by an adult female to use everyday images of her when she was 13.
The decoy was contacted on the site by Moody on October 27, 2020, and they had started chatting.
Ms Foard said Moody said he was from Orkney and was looking for a relationship.
Asked if “she” was looking to meet someone, “she” replied: “I’m 13, isn’t that too young?”
Ms Foard said: “He replied that it wasn’t too young and that he was 23.”
Their contact continued when they switched to WhatsApp after Moody gave the decoy his telephone number.
‘I’ll send you a picture to see how it makes you feel’
Over a couple of days, there was an exchange of photos.
“He told ‘her’ she looked hot,” said the fiscal.
Moody then asked if “she” would like him to travel over from Orkney to meet up.
The fiscal added: “He said that ‘we could go swimming together and go back to my hotel room.
“‘There would be a double bed and you’d be allowed to drink because you were with me.'”
Ms Foard said Moody suggested the decoy could tell her mother that “she” was at a friend’s house.
Moody asked if “she” likes sexting “to see who gets horny first”, adding: “I’ll send you a picture to see how it makes you feel”.
The decoy then received an image of Moody’s genitals and was asked to send a picture of “her and her boobs”.
Moody asked whether “she” had ever touched “herself”.
‘He admitted he had taken the image in the bathtub’
The decoy then ended the chat and reported the matter to police.
Moody was traced and in April last year and his mobile phone, laptop and tablet was seized from his home.
Following an investigation by the police cybercrime unit, he was charged.
He told officers he had never heard of the dating site and had not used WhatsApp at the relevant time.
Ms Foard said: “He confirmed that it was his mobile phone number and that nobody else had access to it.
“He admitted he had taken the image in the bathtub but denied sending it.”
Moody, of Warrenfield Drive, Kirkwall, admitted that between October 27 and December 11, 2020, he sent written communications of a sexual nature and an indecent image to a person he believed was a 13-year-old girl.
Sentence was deferred until April 27 for a criminal justice social work report.
Moody was meanwhile ordered to be placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
