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‘Kids underwear was for my petite ex partner’, says jailed paedophile caught in sting

But judge throws out excuses of pervert pensioner caught in multiple stings and hands him 21-month term

Today at 11:22

A perverted pensioner caught in multiple paedophile hunter stings has been handed a 21-month sentence.

Judge Roseanne McCormick KC told Joseph McDermid that had he been talking to real children rather than decoys, he would have been jailed for much longer.

“I am satisfied that the custody threshold is easily passed in this case, where his offending was directed at five separate individuals and where the contents of his communications demonstrates that he sought to engage one child in the corruption of another,” she said.

“The court is concerned that he attributes the offending, in part, to boredom and that he suggests that the children liked what they were doing and that it was just a bit of fun.”

His 21-month sentence will be split evenly between prison and licence.

McDermid, of Victoria Court in Whitehead, admitted five counts of attempting to cause or incite children to engage in sexual activity and five counts of attempting to sexually communicate with children between April 21, 2021, and January 31 last year.

He also admitted single charges of causing a child to watch a sexual act, attempting to possess an indecent image of a child and attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.

The pervert believed he had been talking to a 14-year-old girl when it was actually someone from a group that calls itself Predators Exposed.

As the communication progressed, it became explicit and sexual images were exchanged between McDermid and the decoy.

One of McDermid’s messages read: “I know you are 14 but I love you. Would you send a naughty photo for me?”

He was confronted by the paedophile hunters at his home and arrested by police, who seized numerous devices. A search of the property also uncovered underwear for girls aged 11 to 12.

When the devices were examined by the PSNI, officers discovered McDermid had been engaging in multiple sexually explicit conversations.

In one case, he asked who he thought was an 11-year-old girl to send him indecent pictures of her five-year-old sister or images of the two of them together in swimsuits.

The predator deployed similar tactics in other chats with the decoys.

Interviewed for a second time in August last year, McDermid told police he was “disgusted with himself and ashamed” but claimed he “never intended to meet them (and) was only joking”.

Denying he had any sexual interest in children, he claimed the discovered underwear belonged to his ex-partner, who he was said was “very petite”.

The prosecution submitted the number of victims, the length of time the offences were committed over and the “persistence and escalation’’ in the crimes as aggravating factors.

The defence argued there were “powerful indicators” of remorse, including his guilty pleas and previously clear record.

“It’s one thing to plead guilty and say sorry but it’s quite another thing to mean it,” argued McDermid’s barrister.

But the judge said she was “highly sceptical” of the defendant’s denial of any sexual interest in children.

On top of his jail sentence, he must sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.

He will also be the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for the same period.