A mother posed as a 14-year-old girl on Snapchat to help catch a ‘snarling’ prevert after he sent a string of sexually explicit videos to girls, a court heard.
The woman took action upon learning that her daughter, 14, had been added as a friend on the social media app by Callum Findlay, 27, who used a fake name.
Findlay had previously sent a sexually explicit video to a ten-year-old girl using a fake picture of a younger boy to talk to her.
He was not caught until the mother of the 14-year-old was alerted when her daughter was approached by him on the app.
She added him from her own account and said she was aged 14, to which Findlay replied ‘cool’ before going on to send her around 20 videos.
The mother later turned up at Aberdeen’s Queen Street police station armed with a USB stick containing evidence of the vile videos.
A mother posed as a 14-year-old girl on Snapchat to help catch ‘snarling’ pervert Callum Findlay (pictured), 27, from Forest Park in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire
Officers eventually managed to snare the pervert when a social media search identified an image of him and his teeth matched those displayed in pictures he sent to another victim of his mouth, ‘snarling’.
Fiscal depute Felicity Merson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday the case involved Findlay communicating with six females using Snapchat.
Mrs Merson said Findlay used a false name during all the interactions and never showed his full face in any of the images or videos he sent.
Between November 1, 2018, and February 28, 2019, Findlay first added a 20-year-old woman on Snapchat using the fake name.
She accepted and the pair ‘exchanged general messages’ before Findlay went on to send a sexually explicit video.
Mrs Merson said: ‘The accused also sent her two close-up images of his mouth snarling where his teeth were clearly visible.’
The woman contacted police about the incident. Mrs Merson told the court: ‘On April 14, 2019 a 10-year-old girl received a Snapchat friend request from the accused using his false identity.
‘His location settings were switched off. A small number of messages were exchanged.
‘The accused sent her an image of a young male and pretended to her that the image was of him.
‘The accused confirmed that he was in high school. The girl pointed out that she was not and that she was 10-years-old.’
The following day when the girl went to primary school she checked her phone and discovered a number of sexually explicit videos from Findlay and became upset.
Findlay pleaded guilty to six charges including causing a 10-year-old girl to look at a sexual image and causing a person he believed to be a child aged 14 to look at a sexual image at Aberdeen Sheriff Court (pictured) on Thursday
Another mother at the school saw the girl crying and took her into the school where the girl told a teacher what had upset her.
The teacher contacted the girl’s parents and they informed the police.
Later on April 15, the mother who had seen the 10-year-old girl crying was told by her own daughter, aged 14, that a male had tried to contact her on Snapchat.
Mrs Merson said: ‘The woman sent him a friend request from her own Snapchat account. This was immediately accepted by the user of the other account.
‘They engaged in general chat, during which time the accused informed her that he was 18-years-old, lived in Aberdeen and he named the secondary school he attended.
‘The woman informed the accused that she was 14-years-old to which he replied “cool”.’
Findlay then sent a number of sexually explicit videos to the woman.
The fiscal depute said: ‘She later attended at Queen Street Police Office and provided police with a USB stick on which she had copied the videos sent to her by the accused.’
The mother added Findlay on her own Snapchat account, where she told him she was 14 and he replied that he was 18
Findlay also added three further females, two aged 16 and one 15, on Snapchat using the same false name and false picture and sent them sexually explicit videos over a number of weeks.
Findlay, whose address was given in court papers as Forest Park in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, pleaded guilty to six charges.
He admitted causing a woman to look at a sexual image without consent, causing a 10-year-old girl to look at a sexual image and causing a person he believed to be a child aged 14 to look at a sexual image.
Findlay also admitted sending written communications of a sexual nature without consent, causing two teenagers to look at a sexual image without consent, and a further charge of causing a third teen to look at a sexual image without consent.
Sheriff Graham Buchanan warned Findlay: ‘These are very serious matters and before I can proceed to sentence I’m required to obtain background information about you.’
He deferred sentence until next month and for the preparation of a social work report and restriction of liberty order assessment.
Defence agent Laura Gracie reserved mitigation until the sentencing hearing.