AN ARDROSSAN pensioner has been handed further time in jail after he was caught sending sexualised messages to a 14-year-old boy.

David Paterson spent more than a year sending the explicit messages to the teenager – but the sickening behvaiour didn’t come to light until the 69-year-old was put on the sex offenders register for another offence.

Paterson pleaded guilty to sending indecent communications to the boy between June 30, 2021 and July 23, 2022.

The victim was aged 14 and 15 at the time.

Paterson, who is already behind bars for another sexual offence, also admitted causing the teen to look at a sexual image on July 18, 2022.

Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard that police discovered the messages when they examined Paterson’s mobile phone as part of the ‘notification requirements’ after he was placed on the register for the other case.

Procurator fiscal depute Craig Wainwright said officers from the sex offender policing unit had found WhatsApp messages between the pair on Paterson’s phone when they visited him at his then home in Knockrivoch Gardens.

The phone was seized for further enquiries, and police then discovered that the chats, which included both written texts and voice notes, had been with a boy below the age of consent.

During the exchanges, the court heard, Paterson had offered the teen money to send him pictures of himself, and had asked the boy to touch and massage his feet and legs.

Mr Wainwright mentioned one message in which Paterson had referred to tying the teen, naked, to the towbar of his vehicle and “driving him around town”.

The court was told Paterson had sent one message to the boy showing a naked female carrying out a sex act.

Police then traced the boy and interviewed him.

Mr Wainwright said: “At the time he thought it was a friends relationship, though upon reflection the messages were of an explicit nature.”

Paterson was arrested at a later date and taken to Saltcoats police station, where, the court heard, he provided a ‘no comment’ interview – other than referring to the messages as “stupid s***”.

Neil McPherson, defending, argued that the case should have called alongside the other prosecution, which had seen Paterson caught in a ‘sting operation’ by a member of a vigilante group posing as a younger child.

Paterson was jailed for 20 months for that offence, which involved the possession of indecent images of children between November 2020 and July 2022 and indecent communication with someone he believed to be a child in May and June of 2022.

Mr McPherson suggested that as both matters had taken place within the same time frame and were of a similar nature, no further custodial sentence would be required.

But Sheriff George Jamieson disagreed and sentenced Paterson to a further 16 months in prison.

He also put Paterson on the sex offenders register for 10 years.