Forfar man duped into messaging 'teen' by vigilante group
- Published
Antony O'Hare was placed under social work supervision for three years
A Forfar man who sent dozens of messages and graphic sexual pictures to a man pretending to be a 13-year-old girl has avoided prison.
Warehouse operator Antony O'Hare spent months messaging the "teenager" but was being duped by a vigilante group.
Dundee Sheriff Court was told "Zoe Herd" was not a real person, but was created to catch sex offenders.
O'Hare, 53, admitted the offence and Sheriff Alistair Carmichael said he could have been jailed.
"It is a serious set of events here and it is something which falls in the custodial zone because of the gravity of the offence," Sheriff Carmichael said.
But he acknowledged that O'Hare had no previous convictions.
He was placed under social work supervision for three years, banned from contact with children, and he had restrictions imposed limiting his internet use.
The court heard "Zoe" was an online profile created by an adult member of the Forbidden Scotland vigilante group.
They built up a dossier of evidence against O'Hare, identifying him after he sent a picture of himself - showing his face - with his dog near his home in Forfar.
Fiscal depute Michael Sweeney told the court: "This is effectively a paedophile hunter case. The decoy works for Forbidden Scotland and posed as a 13-year-old girl.
"The age was made known to the accused at the start. The chats went on for months and the conversation became increasingly sexualised as time went on.
"Images and videos he sent were all taken at his home address."
Mr Sweeney said O'Hare identified himself as being in his 50s and was not deterred by "Zoe" repeatedly telling him she was only 13-years-old.
For around four months he continued to communicate with the decoy and suggested they could get a room together to have sexual contact.
Home raided
"He asked her to wrap herself up for Christmas so he could unwrap her and everything could come off," Mr Sweeney told the court.
"He asked for naked pictures."
O'Hare admitted trying to communicate indecently with a child between 30 September 2020 until 7 February 2021 by sending sexual messages to a man pretending to be a child.
He also admitted having indecent images of children when police arrived to raid his home. He admitted having the images - of children as young as five - between 29 March 2020 and 19 February 2021.
The court was told that when his home was raided, O'Hare told police: "I've been asked for images and I've sent them. I'm not going to lie about it."
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