A pensioner who wanted to engage in underage sex was snared by paedophile hunters.
William Main thought he’d arranged a rendezvous with a girl aged 13 and was willing to pay for the ‘privilege’.
But he was arrested after vigilantes turned up at his home in Fife Drive, Motherwell.
Main, 67, now of Marshall Lane, Wishaw, appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Friday and admitted arranging to meet up for sex with a person he believed to be a young girl.
Main also admitted sending indecent messages and images to this person.
The court heard the sting by the group Maximum Exposure UK happened between November 25 and 30 last year.
Jennifer McLaren, prosecuting, said a member of the group, Karen Bagley, operated an online profile under the name Katie Quinn, purporting to be aged 13.
Main made contact with her, asking if she “fancied a sugar daddy”.
During subsequent online chats, he asked repeatedly if they could meet and offered £60 if she would send him a picture of her naked or in her underwear.
Main told her: “Stop playing games. Be daddy’s little girl.”
He asked if she would go to bed with him and suggested “having fun in the back of my car”.
Main added: “I’ll try to make you excited with my wandering hands.”
But he warned ‘Katie’: “Don’t be telling anyone. You are young and I am old, after all. We don’t want trouble.”
Main fantasised about the girl “wearing nice, sexy undies and letting me strip you”.
He then sent her a video showing a female performing a sex act. Ms McLaren said a meeting was arranged for Saturday, November 30, but instead members of the vigilante group arrived at Main’s home.
The police were alerted and officers were presented with a dossier.
They advised Main to leave “for his own safety”.
The group’s claims were then investigated and he was arrested.
Ms McLaren added: “Main told the police he was planning to meet the girl for a kiss and a cuddle.
“He thought in his mind she was older and was leading him on by saying she was 13.”
Sheriff Shiona Waldron deferred sentence until October 15 for background reports and a risk assessment.
Main, who has no previous convictions, had his bail continued.
