DAVID MUNRO – JOHNSTONE, RENFREWSHIRE

A Scottish sex beast who called himself “Paedo Dave” online was shocked when he was exposed by an undercover police officer.

Serial offender David Munro was already the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order which was supposed to stop him committing sex crimes.

But he was in contact with other paedophiles around the world and was caught sending child abuse images to a law enforcement officer posing as a paedophile.

In chats Munro, of Johnstone, Renfrewshire, boasted he was attracted to children as young as three – while using the username PaedoDave25.

He used Russian websites to share child abuse images with others online.

But one of the people he sent child sex abuse images to was actually an undercover law enforcement officer.

And he now faces a lengthy jail sentence after admitting his guilt during a hearing at Paisley Sheriff Court.

The 56-year-old pleaded guilty to three charges – sending messages discussing child abuse, distributing child abuse images, and breaking a Sexual Offences Prevention Order by not declaring to police that he had an electronic device capable of accessing the internet.

The offences were committed between January and April last year at Munro’s home in Johnstone.

Prosecutor Abigail McKenna told Sheriff Sheena Fraser that Munro had been talking to “an undercover online operative” named Jason.

The Procurator Fiscal Depute said Jason was “an undercover law enforcement operative allowed to take part in certain covert operations”.

Munro said he liked girls aged between three and 10 years old and had an interest in “hardcore” abuse images.

He then sent the undercover officer emails which contained links to abuse images stored online.

At this week’s hearing, Sheriff Fraser adjourned the case until a later date.

In 2023, Munro was jailed for similar offences.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard he had used his Xbox to access the internet, gaining access to a site where he openly expressed his sexual interest in young kids.

He also spoke of his desire to meet children to sexually abuse.

And he admitted he did “distribute or show” indecent photographs of children to others online.

He was jailed for 27 months for those offences.

And in 2018 he was also jailed for 27 months for similar crimes.

He had distributed movies depicting the sexual abuse of youngsters over the internet to other paedophile.

Officers who raided the house, in which he lived with his elderly parents, recovered his laptop computer with 80 indecent pictures showing girls as young as four being abused by grown men.

He had also collected 79 obscene movies depicting the harrowing sexual abuse of youngsters, the majority of these being Category A – the most depraved level of child sex abuse.

He was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years following that Paisley Sheriff Court case in 2018.