A former police delivery driver has been jailed after he was caught in a sting by paedophile hunters.
Stephen Thomson, 46, communicated with at least two decoys, who he thought were underage girls, and also shared indecent images of children with other paedophiles.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that when police raided Thomson’s then home in the city they found scores of indecent images of children on his devices and extreme pornographic videos that involved women having sex with animals.
Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton told the court that on December 20 2020 Thomson told one decoy called Lisa that he was a “driver for the police”.
Two days later he disclosed to Lisa – who he thought was 13 – that he was already engaged in conversation with a 14-year-old girl named Kerryann.
Thomson told Lisa that Kerryann would “teach” her about sex and explain how she could touch herself sexually.
Screenshots were taken of this conversation and police executed a search warrant for Thomson’s Aberdeen home on December 23 2020.
Upon being arrested by police, Thomson informed officers that he had sent images of his private parts to Kerryann.
When his phone was examined by police they found a total of 40 indecent images of children, of which four were of the most serious Category A, 12 were Category B and 24 were Category C.
They also found videos with a total runtime of over 22 minutes that involved girls and boys aged between two and 13 years old.
Of the 16 videos found, 10 were considered Category A, while three were Category B and three were Category C.
Conversations with other paedophiles
Cybercrime officers later discovered that Thomson had also been distributing indecent images of children with other individuals online via the Kik and Telegram sites.
The officers also extracted chat content between Thomson and Kerryann in which he asks her sexualised questions about her sisters, who he believed to be around eight and 13 years old.
Thomson pleaded guilty to a total of five charges between October 17 2020 and December 23 2020, including one charge of possessing indecent images of children and a second charge of possessing extreme pornography of adults having sex with animals.
He also admitted to one charge of distributing indecent images of children and two charges of sending messages of a sexual nature to what he believed to be children.
Defence agent Gail Goodfellow told the court that her client had “no previous convictions and an excellent work record”.
She added: “He has shown remorse and taken responsibility and pleaded guilty at a relatively early stage.
“The behaviour in these charges occurred over a relatively short period of time and there was a relatively low number of pictures and images in his possession – it was also a non-contact offence.”
Sheriff Graham Buchanan told Thomson that his offences were a “matter of such seriousness” that only a custodial sentence was appropriate.
He said: “These are serious matters and the charge which involves the distribution of indecent photographs of children is a particularly serious matter.
“I think it’s generally well understood that individuals who engage in that particular practice are very likely to receive a custodial sentence.
“I have taken the view in this case that it is a matter of such seriousness – particularly combined with the other offences that you have committed – that only a prison sentence is appropriate in this case.
“No other type of sentence would accurately reflect the seriousness of these offences when considered in their totality.”
Sheriff Buchanan sentenced Thomson, now of Craigo, Montrose, to a total of 16 months in prison.
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