INVERKEITHING MAN CAUGHT IN ONLINE SEX CHAT STING SENTENCED TO SUPERVISION
A 52-year-old sex offender named Peter Houlihan from Back o’ Yards, Inverkeithing, was involved in a police operation where he engaged in online sex chats with someone he believed was a 12-year-old girl.The incident took place between December 8-11, during which he communicated sexual messages via WhatsApp and Fast Flirting platforms with a police officer posing as a 12-year-old girl named "Sam." The court heard that Houlihan’s messages were sexually explicit, with him asking if she liked to masturbate and making other sexual inquiries.
When arrested, he claimed he thought "Sam" was 18, but the court was told that he knew her real age.
Houlihan admitted to sending these messages and accepted that he made a terrible mistake.
He was sentenced at Dunfermline Sheriff Court to a community payback order with six months of supervision and was also placed on the sex offenders' register.
The case was part of a decoy operation run from England, with the police setting up an online account of a 12-year-old girl called "Sam" to catch offenders.
