How Did Kieran Hamilton Make His Money

A perverted creep admitted offering teenage girls money in exchange for topless photos during a paedophile hunter sting.

Kieran Ali, 26, struck up conversations with five girls on Facebook.

He bombarded them with depraved messages and repeatedly asked to be sent explicit photos of them despite, being told they were as young as 12.

But Ali, of Hamilton, was unaware he was talking to adult members of a paedophile hunter group pretending to be youngsters to weed out online predators.

Vigilantes tracked down Ali to a restaurant he worked in and live streamed the confrontation over Facebook.

He was arrested and bailed but later made contact again with paedophile hunters before more vigilantes turned up at his family home.

During a police interview, Ali denied sending the messages and claimed a work colleague had stolen his phone and sent them.

But he later confessed: "I should have stopped it. I have not actually slept with a 14-year-old girl."

Ali appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and admitted sending sexual messages and images to people pretending to be children between May and December 2019.

Depute fiscal Jennifer McCabe said: "The witnesses in this case are volunteers in a paedophile vigilante group who pose as children to track down suspected paedophiles.

"Witnesses identified him before approaching him and this was live streamed on Facebook.

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"During an interview with police, he told them he used the name Kieran Taylor on social media and thought that 25-year-olds speaking to 14-year-olds was disgusting and that it was wrong.

"He said he couldn't remember sending the messages but admitted the messages had been sent from his Facebook Messenger account.

"He then said his colleague could have sent them because he was getting bullied at work, he had reported his phone missing but it had turned up the next day."

Ian Scott, defending, said: "This would appear to be a sequence of events that were quite isolated in his life and I would submit that he does not present a risk or danger to the public.

"It is not lost on him the gravity of this case and the likely disposal of it."

Sheriff Daniel Kelly QC deferred sentence on first offender Ali until next month and remanded him in custody.

He was also placed on the sex offenders' register.