Buckie pensioner who asked ‘14-year-old girl’ for photographs is sentenced at Inverness Sheriff Court

A pensioner who asked a ‘14-year-old girl’ for photographs of herself has been placed on the Sex Offender’s Register.

Duncan Moir, of Bede Road, Rathven, near Buckie, made explicit sexual remarks online to what he believed was a 14-year-old - but was actually an adult from a paedophile hunter group.

As well as being placed on the Sex Offender’s Register, the 71-year-old was placed under three years of social work supervision.

He also had restrictions placed on his possession and use of internet-enabled devices, and he has to take part in a sex offender's rehabilitation programme called "Moving Forward to Change."

Sheriff Sara Matheson said that it would give her “great satisfaction” if Moir breached his community payback order so she could send him to prison.

The Sheriff said: "Any breach of these orders and it will give me great satisfaction to send you to prison."

She criticised the growing number of cases of this sort. She added: "Society is experiencing an epidemic of online sexual offending.

“Men need to take a long hard look at themselves as it is their responsibility as well as the courts to keep children safe from this disgusting online activity."

Inverness Sheriff Court had previously heard that Moir, who used his real name in reverse on his social media page, contacted the 'girl' calling herself 'Molly' on December 17, 2023, and told her his age.

He was informed that his contact was 14 and fiscal depute Pauline Gair told Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald that Moir called the girl: "Baby, gorgeous, my dear girl, my beautiful gorgeous girl”.

Mrs Gair went on: "He asked her if she had a boyfriend and asked her for photographs of herself. The conversation became more sexualised."

The court heard that Moir said the girl made him "horny", asked about her private parts and what sex acts she knew about.

He also told her what acts he would like her to do to him, adding that he would keep her safe.

Moir also told her: "By the way, don’t tell anyone what I have been talking about or I would be in trouble."

At that stage, the decoy from online child abuse activist group 'Elite' informed another similar group in Scotland, 'Protecting Kids Scotland', they identified from screenshots where Moir lived and confronted him while live-streaming it online.

Moir admitted sexually communicating with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl between December 17, and March 16 last year.