A convicted sex offender has been jailed for two years after he breached conditions that prevented him from talking to children.
Beast John Quinn, 58, was caught with 111 child sex abuse images on his phone, four abuse videos and a number of vile sexual messages he thought he was sending to a 12-year-old girl.
But the paedophile was actually talking to an undercover cop between September 2, 2020 to September 28, 2020 before he was snared.
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Quinn, of the town’s Neilston Road, was jailed for two years as part of a five year extended sentence which will see him serve two years in jail and upon his release, be subject to license for three years.
Sheriff Tom McCartney also made the creep subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) for seven years.
Prosecutor, Dana Barclay explained that an undercover cop created a decoy profile of a 12-year-old girl named ‘Paige’ on social media and started a conversation with a user ‘Tony Boyle’ on September 4, 2020 through Google Hangouts.
This conversation moved onto the app, Skype on September 14, 2020 and to the user ‘Tony Boyle’ having the Skype username ‘Live:JHay34836.’
Ms Barclay explained: “Around 7.35am on Monday, May 17, 2021, Detective Constables Jamie McLellan with the assistance of other officers attended at the accused’s flat in possession of a search warrant.
“At this time the accused quickly made his way to the living room and took hold of his mobile phone.
“The accused appeared to be trying to access the phone. DC McLellan and Campbell observed that there was a social media application open and saw messages there between the accused and another user ‘Kelxyel’. “There were two messages, one said, ‘Hi’ and the other read ‘What pics u want.’
“DC Robb and McGoldrick from the Cybercrime Unit attended to assist with the examination of relevant devices. A short time later DC McLellan was informed that a white Samsung mobile phone seized from the accused contained indecent images of children. “
A full examination of the device seized was conducted by the Cybercrime Unit.
The result of the examination showed that a total of 111 child sexual exploitation and abuse images were recovered from the device, falling within categories A, B and C. 62 of the images were accessible to a user of the device. The images had been created between April 8, 2020 and May 3, 2021.
A total of four moving images were recovered, falling within categories A, B and C.
Ms Barclay went on to explain that the undercover officer informed the beast that she was ‘Paige’ aged 12 years during their conversation on September 8, 2020.
A cybercrime report showed that user accounts on the device seized from the accused which included a Google Hangouts account in the name ‘Tony Boyle’ with the associated email address of ‘tonyboyle34836@gmail.com’ and a second Google account in the name ‘John Hay’ with the associated email address of ‘jhay34836@ gmail.com.’
Ms Barclay continued: “DC McLellan seized a number of items of clothing from the accused’s property which matched items worn in the sexual images sent.
“The accused sent a number of sexual images and videos during conversation. He sent numerous sexual messages to ‘Paige’ between September 13, 2020 and September 17, 2020.”
Quinn’s defence agent told the court his behaviour restarted as a result of lockdown.
He explained: “He found himself alone and isolated and this led him to turning to alcohol and in turn returned to his offending behaviour. He is deeply embarrassed by his behaviour and regrets it, he simply doesn’t know what was going through his head when these offences were committed.”
Sheriff Tom McCartney said: “Having regard to the gravity of these crimes, there is no alternative to a prison sentence. Because of the sexual nature of these crimes I’m concerned I have to protect the public from you. You will therefore be subject to an extended sentence for five years with a prison custodial term of two years.”
Quinn was also placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for an indefinite period.
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