An Edinburgh teacher has stated that the messages he sent to a teenage girl online were "just a fantasy".
Iain Parkinson, 56, is accused of trying to meet a young girl for sex, and has appeared before a General Teaching Council for Scotland panel to determine if he can continue to teach.
Parkinson, from Corstorphine, had been caught by undercover police trying to meet the girl at a Travelodge in Falkirk.
However, the teenage girl, called Lisa Brown, was actually officers acting on the Fabswingers website.
While chatting online, Parkinson is said to have believed he was talking to Lisa when he made references to sex with a 14-year-old girl and with a dog.
After being found at the meeting point on May 31, 2016, Parkinson was then held by police, reports the Daily Record.
Now, Parkinson faces being struck off as a teacher, but claims he is still fit to do so, and that his comments to Lisa Brown were "just a fantasy".
Darren Wapplington of the NASUWT union told the hearing it was accepted as fact Parkinson had engaged in an inappropriate online chat in May 2016.
But Parkinson maintains he did not turn up at the Travelodge with the intention of having sex with an under-age girl.
Police who searched him there discovered condoms in his car and on his person.
Mr Wapplington asked an officer who was at the Travelodge: “Would you say that having condoms in your car or on your person is evidence of an intent to engage in a criminal activity?”
The witness responded: “No”.
Officers found “nothing of note” on Parkinson’s computer from Kirkcaldy High School.
Parkinson was charged but the trial was dropped after a sheriff said he had been a victim of entrapment.
The hearing continues.
