An Irvine man is facing jail for grooming what he thought was a 12-year-old girl – after being stung by an online group targeting paedophiles.

Garry Allmark, 46, was brought to justice with the help of a group known as the Scotland Anti Predator Alliance (SAPA).

Operatives from the group snared Allmark online while he was living at a flat in Ardrossan with his wife and eight-year-old son.

They then arranged to meet him and confronted him over the vile messages he had sent to one of their decoys during a meeting at Harvie’s.

As well as sending a picture of male genitalia, Allmark sent what he thought was a youngster pictures of women performing sex acts on themselves.

He sent the ‘child’ so many messages SAPA operatives gave police 410 pages of print outs. The details emerged last week when Allmark, who now lives in Burns Street, Irvine, appeared in the dock at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court for a pre-trial hearing.

He admitted a charge under Section 23 and 24(1) of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 by attempting to have sexual communication with a young child, and sending sexual pictures and videos to what he thought was an underage girl.

Procurator Fiscal Depute Jo Cunninghamexplained: “Between March 30, 2018, and May 5, 2018, the accused had been in communication with a person whom he assumed was a child under the age of 13.

“The communication he had was, in fact, with the Scottish Anti Predator Alliance. “The Alliance contacted police and they provided them with hard copies of messages which had been exchanged between the accused and the ‘child’.

Police, on receipt of the evidence, arrested the accused.”

Allmark, assisted in court by a sign language interpreter, nodded during his police interview to confirm he’d had sexual conversations with the ‘child’ and that he knew it was illegal.

But he insisted he was “not a paedophile.”

Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane placed Allmark on the Sex Offenders’ Register, and adjourned the case for reports.