Scots creep sent sick images to ‘14-year-old girl’ and asked 'are you part of those paedophile hunters?'

Creep Peter McCorkindale, 50, sent sick images of himself to an online “decoy” he thought was an innocent 14-year-old old girl.

A Paisley pervert was snared by an online decoy after asking “are you part of those paedophile hunters’ groups?”

Creep Peter McCorkindale, 50, sent sick images of himself to a “decoy” he thought was an innocent 14-year-old old girl.

McCorkindale, of Craggs Road, sent countless indecent messages to the decoy from Child Protectors Scotland, who was posing as a young teen, on WhatsApp, after meeting ‘her’ on a dating app.

He sent pictures of his private parts, a video of him performing a sex act on himself and an indecent video of a woman, while trying to convince ‘her’ to perform sex acts on herself.

Asked by Procurator Fiscal depute David McDonald about his involvement in the case, the decoy, who is unemployed and is a carer for his wife, said: “We are an online enforcement team and set up profiles of children on various apps.

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“It’s basically a child protection service, I’d say.

“It seemed to me there was a public safety matter with these people.

“There seemed to be many among society where they thought it was allowed to make contact with children online.”

He said he created an “online persona” on an over-18 dating app, called Tagged, in the name of Leah Taylor.

He used a picture of a teenage girl to go alongside the profile.

He said McCorkindale contacted him on Tagged and gave him his mobile number, before their conversation moved to WhatsApp.

The decoy said that McCorkindale told him he had a motorbike and wanted to take her out on it.

McCorkindale even asked “are you part of those paedophile hunters groups”, to which ‘Leah’ replied, “eh, no I’m not, sorry”.

But he was chatting to McCorkindale to snare him – and got his chance when he turned their conversations sexual.

In the messages he sent, McCorkindale insisted he was “not a creep” and wanted to help her experience pleasure.

He also said, “I’ll be gentle with you”, while the decoy repeatedly replied saying she was just 14.

In his police interview, McCorkindale repeatedly denied knowing she was 14, claiming he had messaged ‘Leah’ for seven months to see if she would “give the game up”.

He told officers: “I didn’t think she was 14.

“I knew it wasn’t a child.”

In his closing speech to the jury, Mr McDonald, prosecuting, said: “There is nothing in those messages to suggest that Peter McCorkindale knew that this was actually an adult, never mind an adult male.

“What about when he sends the message we saw saying: ‘Leah sorry I keep forgetting your 14 in my defence you’re a very beautiful young woman and I’d love to be the guy who makes love to you when your old enuf’.

“He’s sent that on the May 30, 2018 - the better part of three months after the first WhatsApp messages we’ve seen.

“After sending numerous indecent messages and multiple pictures of his own penis - and, yet, there he sits, maintaining he knew she wasn’t 14.

“Peter McCorkindale told the police he thought he had been baited - he was the one that sent all the indecent communications.

“He was the one sending pictures and videos.

“He tells the police that he feels like he was goaded into doing so.

“In what way was he goaded? Nonsense.

“Utter nonsense.”

The jury took less than 15 minutes to convict McCorkindale of the charges he faced - attempting to cause a child to look at a sexual image, and “intentionally, and for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification or of distressing, or alarming a person” he believed to be a child, sending them “sexual and indecent” messages, between March 2 and October 17, 2018, at a flat in Stock Street,
Paisley.

Sentence on McCorkindale was adjourned until next month for background reports to be prepared and he was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.