Grangemouth online sex offender snared by 54-year-old 'decoy' pretending to be young girl

For over two months, Stuart Smith, 49, thought he had been communicating with a child and had even taken steps to try and meet her.

He was said to be “isolated and alone” at that time in his life and was looking for “companionship and company” but, while the majority of the messages to the person he thought was a child were “innocent and friendly”, there were comments that were clearly sexual in nature.

Appearing at Falkirk Sheriff Court last Thursday, Smith had pleaded guilty to sending sexual communications to someone he believe was aged between 13 and 16 at his home in Cultenhove Crescent, Grangemouth, between June 29 and September 11, 2021.

The charges stated, for the purposes of sexual gratification, Smith sent sexualised comments and attempt to communicate indecently with a child.

Murray Aitken, defence solicitor, called it a “relatively unusual case of its type” and stated the decoy was a woman aged 54 who stated Smith had posted a few “innuendos” which were not appropriate.

Mr Aitken said: “He didn’t realise he had overstepped the mark, but he knows what he has done is wrong. He was going through a difficult period of his life – he was isolated and alone, looking for companionship and company.

"He sent a number of messages, the vast majority of which were innocent and friendly in nature. He is a first offender who has lost a lot as a result of this – he hasn’t had an opportunity to speak to his children since proceedings began.

"That has taken a toll on him and he regrets going down this particular path.”

The court heard Smith was classed as someone who was a low risk of offending again.

Sheriff Craig Harris said the report noted Smith was effectively “grooming” someone he thought was a child over a period of two-and-a-half months and there was an attempt to arrange a meeting with her.

He noted Smith said he was “chatting” with the girl, but some of the comments he made were “clearly sexual in nature”.

Sheriff Harris added: “No actual harm is involved because the person you believed was a child, was a 54-year-old pretending to be a child.”

He placed Smith on a supervised community payback order for three years with the condition he attend Moving Forward, Making Changes programme in that time and complete 160 hours of unpaid work within 18 months.

Smith was also made subject to the reporting requirements of the sex offenders register for three years and banned from having unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 16.

He was also made subject to a number of restrictions and supervision requirements regarding access to the internet – including informing police of all devices he has which have online access and not deleting any history from these devices.