Undercover detectives snare Edinburgh pervert targeting schoolgirls online

A pervert who targeted young girls online while using the name ‘Scottish Willy’ has escaped a prison sentence.

Craig Birrell, 53, contacted social media profiles of who he believed to be two schoolgirls and stripped naked and performed a solo sex act in front of them while using a webcam.

He also sent disgusting sexual messages to the youngsters stating he wanted to meet up in person so they could “watch him strip for real” and “touch his c***”.

Birrell thought he was chatting to schoolgirls but was in reality online communicating with two undercover Police Scotland officers.

Perverted Birrell walked free from Edinburgh Sheriff Court after admitting two charges

Detectives were able to trace the IP address used by ‘Scottish Willy’ to the address of Birrell’s partner who he lives with at the Polwarth area of Edinburgh, in November 2020.

Officers seized a number of computer devices and the court was told Birrell, a first offender, told police he “knew it was wrong but it was a compulsion”.

Birrell pleaded guilty to two offences of causing a person he believed to be under 13 to look at a sexual image and communicate indecently when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.

Sheriff Thomas Welsh QC placed him on the Sex Offenders’ Register [SOR] but spared him a jail sentence.

Birrell was also sentenced to a three year supervision order and told he must carry out 250 hours of unpaid work in the community as a direct alternative to custody.

He was also placed on the SOR for three years and handed a conduct requirement not to possess any internet devices without permission.

Previously the court heard two undercover police officers had been “deployed as a 12-year-old girls” named ‘Kaitlyn’ and ‘Gemma’ on online chat sites in a bid to catch online predators.

They were contacted by a man using the name ‘Scottish Willy’ and despite knowing the girls’ age he continued to message them asking if they wanted to meet up with him “for fun”.

Mr Thomson said Birrell used a web camera to broadcast footage of himself to the two officers where he stripped naked and performed a sex act.

Birrell carried out the offending against ‘Gemma’ between August 19 and September 18 2020 and against ‘Kaitlyn’ between August 10 and September 18 2020.

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