KIRKCALDY ALERT! FIFE PAEDOPHILE BRIAN MCGOWAN CAUGHT BY STING TEAM
A 28-year-old Fife man was snared by a paedophile hunter pretending to be a teenage girl when he sent numerous sexually explicit messages to her online.Brian McGowan believed he was communicating on Snapchat and Instagram with a 14-year-old girl called Cassie but was in fact speaking to a woman who previously worked for Maximum Exposure Scotland and now works as a solo decoy.
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard how McGowan had been attempting to normalise paedophilia and claimed as long as sex was consensual it was okay regardless of age.
Procurator fiscal depute Jamie Hilland told the court McGowan then tried to gauge the decoy’s interest in forming a relationship with him.
A few days later, McGowan sent a number of sexualised messages including one which read: “I have thought about you in a sexual way a lot.” McGowan, who appeared in court via video link to Perth prison, pled guilty to intentionally sending someone he believed to be a 14-year-old child sexually explicit messages and telling her he was sexually attracted to her.
The offending took place between September 11 and October 26 last year from his former home in Kirkcaldy’s Gourlay Street and elsewhere.
Defence lawyer David Cranston said a recent psychological report highlighted McGowan’s behaviour is almost certainly influenced by the fact he is autistic.
Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane adjourned sentencing until July 22 for the production of background reports and remanded him in custody.
