A PREDATORY SCIENTIST SENT REPULSIVE SEXUAL MESSAGES TO WHAT HE THOUGHT WAS A 12-YEAR-OLD GIRL
A predatory scientist sent repulsive sexual messages to what he thought was a 12-year-old girl before police uncovered almost 1,000 child abuse images at his Dundee home.Aidan McKay is at risk of being jailed after pleading guilty to attempting to communicate with a child and downloading abuse material.
An undercover police sting brought him to justice after he used an online chat platform to target a “girl” named Chloe.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard how the 32-year-old was sending vile messages during his working day as a scientific officer at the University of St Andrews.
McKay had emigrated to Scotland in April 2023 from New Zealand and the court was told how the creep brought indecent images of children with him from his homeland.
He used Chatiw, a social media platform often linked to child grooming cases, to speak to “Chloe”.
McKay’s username was ‘Prvforgirls’ and he described himself as a 30-year-old man from Scotland.
Despite the decoy identifying as a young girl, McKay continued the messages and asked if she did “naughty things” with “old men”.
Prosecutor Joanne Ritchie said the conversations escalated and moved to Snapchat, but contact ceased on February 13, 2025, as McKay grew suspicious.
Ms Ritchie said that the conversations took place during working hours, with McKay’s Snapchat profile – ‘gusmust’ – accessed from IP addresses registered to the University of St Andrews.
Police also saw McKay’s locations on Snapchat closely linked to his Dundee home and workplace.
A warrant was executed at his home, where his partner answered police questions.
McKay remained silent during interview.
The court was told that police found over 980 indecent images of children on a mobile phone and a system unit.
Some images were at the highest level of depravity (Category A), although most were at Category C.
The videos uncovered had a total runtime of almost two hours.
McKay pleaded guilty to the two charges at the first diet, with mitigation reserved pending a social work report.
Sentencing was deferred until April, with McKay placed on the sex offenders register on an interim basis.
