A former university lecturer who was convicted of trying to have sex with 'a 15-year-old boy' escaped a jail sentence today.
Tordur Joansson, 78, arranged to meet a "teen" called Callum at Glasgow’s Queen Street Station last May after 11 days of explicit chats online.
But, unknown to him, he was in contact with a vigilante group and not a teenage boy. The group met him at one of the entrances to the station and handed him over to the police.
Joansson, from Paisley, was convicted of intending to have sex with the youngster.
He claimed that it was entrapment because there was no 15-year-old boy.
Sheriff Martin Jones QC responded: “This is about the fact of what he intended. The fact there was no 15-year-old boy is neither here nor there.”
The court heard that in his chats, Joansson spoke about his desire to have “soft sex” and claimed he was 56.
Sheriff Jones said that he had considered whether to jail Joansson, but felt this be dealt with by way of a community payback order for two years.
Joansson will have to attend specialist programmes designed to stop him re-offending. He was placed on the sex offenders' register for two years.
Sheriff Jones added: “Mr Joansson has up to now had a blame free life and has contributed much in his working life in education.”
Have you downloaded the Glasgow Live app yet? Get all the latest news and events at the touch of a button on Android and Apple .
