Paedophile caught by vigilante group posing as Glasgow schoolgirls

A paedophile who travelled to Glasgow to meet two schoolgirls he thought he had been talking to was caught after it turned out he had been speaking to members of a vigilante group.

John Hargreaves, 63, thought he was talking to 12-year-old Holly and her 13-year-old friend, Kirsty throughout November and December 2017.

He invited the youngsters to send pictures of themselves and used sexualised language towards them.

In one message he told Kirsty “you’re a good girl Kirsty, and if you’re a good girl I might let you see what I have for you both to play with on Friday night ok xxx”.

But, Hargreaves was actually talking to Hayleigh Whitelaw and Gordon Buchan from the Wolf Pack group.

After a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court, Hargreaves was convicted of three charges under the Sexual Offences Act, including making arrangements to travel with the intention of meeting a 12 and 13-year-old to engage in unlawful sexual behaviour.

The group who call themselves Wolf Pack Hunters snared Hargreaves at Buchanan Bus Station when he arrived to meet the girls.

Hargreaves claimed he knew he wasn’t speaking to the young girls and claimed that it was clear from a message he sent to Kirsty.

It said: “I don’t know you you are but I have played along for the last few days trying to figure out your scam.

“You’re not two young girls, your grown men trying to scam people.

"I have asked you to go on camera and you make excuses or just blank it because you cannot go on camera because you're grown adults lol so don’t message me again.”

However, he goes on to ask “Are you up yet?”, and continues to talk to the girl the following day.

He said he used the language he did in a bid to put them off from speaking to him.

In another message creepy Hargreaves said: “Holly you need to learn to trust me and never tell your family about me.”

In her speech to the jury, procurator fiscal depute Mhairi Alexander branded Hargreaves’ position “nonsense”

She said: “He made no mention of saying ‘listen Holly, if you are 12 you shouldn’t really be on here’ or ‘I am going o block you from contacting me’.”

Miss Alexander added “He professed to be a responsible member of the public who sought to look after children’s best interests. To protecting them.

“He is asking you to believe that he engaged in what you might think is a highly sexualised conversation, and he did this because he wanted them to stop talking to him.”

The court heard Hargreaves agreed when the prosecutor asked him if he was the real victim.

In a message on November 10, 2017 he said “Holly, if you want to be in a relationship with me you must be honest”.

Days before he goes to meet who he believes are the girls, on November 8, he sent a message to Kirsty: “you’re a good girl Kirsty, and if you’re a good girl I might let you see what I have for you both to play with on Friday night ok xxx”

Miss Alexander said: “Notwithstanding the fact he aid he was certain he was talking to children the whole time, he also told you but what he would do had he turned up and in fact been met with two girls, so he clearly was expecting to find them there.

“But nonetheless, you can be certain that he did think this because the last message he receives from Holly is ‘Okay, just waiting in the toilet to pee. Are you here’

“And his response ‘yes’. And there he was, outside the girls toilets.”

Sheriff Ian Fleming deferred sentence for reports and continued Hargreaves bail.