Galashiels man caught in online sting admits charges

Peter Mulvey, of Galashiels, pleaded guilty to that charge at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last Thursday, April 11, prior to a scheduled trial.

Mulvey first appeared in court in December after being caught in an online sting at Edinburgh’s Royal Commonwealth Pool staged by a group set up to name and shame alleged sex offenders.

In February, he denied the charges, under section 34 of the 2009 Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act, but he changed his plea to guilty last week.

Sentence was deferred until Thursday, May 23.

Members of an organisation called Wolf Pack Hunters UK targeted Mulvey in an online confrontation live-streamed on its Facebook page in December, and the 23-minute video has since been viewed more than 93,000 times.

The vigilante group claims to expose alleged sex offenders by posing as children to act as decoys to lure people into meeting them and then films such encounters and shares them online with its 98,000 followers.