Edinburgh man who sent schoolgirl sick messages confronted by hunter group outside Scottish Parliament

Kevin Convery was confronted by members of the online hunter group ASA Scotland after he made contact with one of their decoys on the dating site Badoo.

Convery, 50, believed he was speaking a 13-year-old child called Mia, and after the chat moved to WhatsApp he sent disgusting sexual comments to the profile. The former Argyll and Sutherland regiment serviceman also sent the child’s online profile images of him partially naked.

Kevin Convery, pictured during the Paedo Hunter Group's online sting outside the Scottish Parliament. | Alexander Lawrie

Convery travelled from his former home in Clackmannan to Edinburgh where he was confronted outside the Scottish Parliament building by the hunter group, who live streamed the meeting to thousands of online followers.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told Convery, now of the capital’s Shandwick Place, had been contacting various adult women on the Badoo dating site when he began chatting to “Mia’.

He told the girl she was “a sexy young lassie” and he wanted to see images of her naked. Convery then demanded the child send him videos and he sent messages to her describing how she should carry out his instructions.

Convery, who was jailed in 1995 for having sex with a child, claimed he believed Mia was over 18 years old when he first made contact. 

He said he had been feeling “loneliness and isolation” at the time of the offending and he had been “stupid” to carry on messaging after he was told she was underage.

Convery appeared at the city court for sentencing on Tuesday after previously pleading guilty to sending sexual comments and images of himself to who believed was a child between May 26 and June 21 this year.

Sheriff Adrian Fraser sentenced Convery to be placed under the supervision of the social work department and his name to be added to the sex offenders register for 18 months.