PERV LOOKING FOR SCHOOLGIRL MET AT FIFE BUS STATION BY PAEDO-HUNTERS
A 63-year-old man made the 130-mile journey from Peterhead to Kirkcaldy to meet his 14-year-old ‘girlfriend’.
However, when he got off the bus he was met instead by so-called paedophile hunters.
Allan Cruickshank had planned to spend the night having sex at a guest house with the schoolgirl, who turned out to be an online decoy.
Cruickshank, formerly of Peterhead, now of King Street, Aberdeen, had been sending sexual messages telling the girl he would be her “first BF”.
However, he was immediately confronted and videoed on social media when he stepped off the bus.
Cruickshank was back in Fife for sentencing at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court today (Tuesday).
He admitted that between 2nd and July 2024, he communicated with someone he believed to be a young girl.
He asked her to be his girlfriend, described numerous sex acts he wanted to perform with her and thereby attempted to communicate indecently with a child.
Between the same dates, he made arrangements to travel with the intention of meeting the person he believed to be a girl and intended to engage in unlawful sexual activity with her.
Two groups of paedo hunters were involved. One set up the decoy which snared Cruickshank and another attended the bus station for the sting.
Depute fiscal Rachel Hill previously told the court Cruickshank started an online conversation with the decoy saying, “Hi beautiful” and was quickly told the girl was 14.
In later online discussions he asked if he could be her boyfriend before engaging in graphic sexual dicussion.
He arranged to meet the girl in Kirkcaldy and said he had booked a B&B in Leven for them to spend the night together.
He told her to say she was his daughter when they got to the accommodation.
“We can have sex. I will be your first BF,” he wrote.
On the day of their planned meeting, Cruickshank got on an early morning bus from Peterhead and was posting regular updates and photos from his journey.
When he arrived at Kirkcaldy and he was seen looking around for someone but the only ones there were the paedophiles hunters who confirmed his identity before calling the police.
Defence solicitor David Bell said his client’s home had been targeted after the incident came to light.
He conceded that Cruickshank describing the offence to social workers as “a mistake” was “perhaps minimising”.
He added that his client lives alone and was recently taken into hospital with chest pains.
Sheriff Robert More imposed a community payback order with three years of supervision, participation in the ‘Moving Forward to Change’ programme and a 160-day restriction of liberty order.
Cruickshank has also been put on the sex offenders register for three years.
