Renewable energy consultant unmasked as paedophile targeting young girls
- Rory Cassidy
- Aug 12
- 2 min read
A renewable energy consultant has been spared jail for sending sexual messages to what he thought were young girls.
Callum Dell used the Discord and Kik messaging apps to contact what he believed were 12-year-olds.
But they were actually one police officer posing as both children on the apps, one named Olivia and one named Molly.
Paisley Sheriff Court heard that Dell, of the Glasgow suburb of Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, began messaging one of the profiles in May last year.
His lawyer told the court that he had been addicted to pornography at the time.
Despite being told the girls he was talking to were aged only 12, he had sexualised conversations with them which went into graphic detail.
He even made negative remarks about his girlfriend and their love life as he spoke to the fictitious youngsters.
The court was told that he sent intimate pictures of himself and requested that they send photographs of themselves to him.
He also sent a video of him performing a sex act on himself and asked the youngsters if they would meet up with him.
The court heard the matter was reported to police and that officers attended his home.
He put on a t-shirt that he had been wearing in one of the pictures he sent the girls, and officers were also able to identify his bedroom walls from the background of pictures he had sent.
His lawyer said that he was also suffering from anxiety and social isolation at the time of the offences.
The 32-year-old pleaded guilty to two charges previously and returned to the dock last month to learn his fate.
The charges he admitted were communicating indecently with people he believed to be under 13, and arranging to meet someone he believed to be under 16.
After hearing that Dell was surprised to learn he could have been jailed over the offences, Sheriff Eoin McGinty said: "I just wonder what planet he is living on.
"Custody is almost an inevitability when you send these kinds of things to a 12-year-old."
The sheriff was told that Dell works for energy firm Vantage RE as Head of Development.
He then spared Dell prison, placing him on a Community Payback Order, the Sex Offenders' Register and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
He said: "Society is repulsed by these types of offences to people you believed to be 12 years old.
"Whilst this does attract a custodial sentence, I have been persuaded I can step back from sending you to prison today."
He told Dell he will be supervised by social workers for three years and has 18 months to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.
Dell's LinkedIn states he is an "experienced renewables developer and consultant" and works as Head of Greenfield Development with the company.
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