A 51-year-old man, who repeatedly sent sexual videos and images to someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl, has avoided a jail sentence.

John Meynell was confronted and filmed on his doorstep in Lochore by a group of paedophile-hunters.

Meynell repeatedly sent videos of himself masturbating to the ‘girl’ and told her, “This stays between us, don’t tell anybody.”

He was in fact communicating with an adult member of a Wales-based group using ‘decoys’ to snare those preying on children.

A sheriff spoke of her “disgust” at Meynell’s behaviour.

Meynell, formerly of Loch Leven Court, Lochore, is now living at Edmonds Way, Stalham, Norfolk and he appeared for sentencing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

He had admitted that on 29^th July last year at his home in Lochore, he sent an image and video of his penis to someone he believed to be a young girl and thereby attempted to cause a child to view a sexual image.

He also made inappropriate sexual remarks and instructed her to remove her clothing, thereby attempting to communicate indecently with a child.

He tried to video call the decoy multiple times and sent her videos of him masturbating and photos of his penis.

She said she was 14 but Meynell continued to send indecent images and videos of himself in sexual activity.

He said, “This stays between us, don’t tell anybody” and then told her to delete the chat.

He masturbated on a video call on 28^th July and the next day

was confronted live on Facebook by Scottish paedo-hunters, who had been contacted by the Welsh group.

Defence solicitor Chris Sneddon said, “There are concerning aspects to the offence as well as the social work report. He’s a first offender but it’s accepted this is a serious matter.”

Sheriff Krista Johnston said she viewed Meynell’s conduct “with natural concern and disgust”.

However, she said, “The public is going to be best protected by the imposition of a community-based order.”

She imposed a community payback order with two years of supervision and 300 hours of unpaid work. Meynell was also put on the sex offenders register for five years.