A PERVERT drug dealer was caught growing a cannabis plantation after a paedophile hunting group confronted him for sending sordid messages to a “13-year-old schoolgirl”.


A PERVERT drug dealer was caught growing a cannabis plantation after a paedophile hunting group confronted him for sending sordid messages to a “13-year-old schoolgirl”.

Lee Ness contacted a social media account he thought belonged to a teenager called Millie Thomas and sent her disgusting sexual comments.

Ness, 42, asked the girl if she masturbated and encouraged her to watch pornographic movies during the illicit chats.

But the account had been set up by the online group Wolf Pack Hunters UK and members turned up at Ness’s Edinburgh home last March to confront him.

Police also arrived at the home shortly after the vigilantes had informed officers they were attending at his address.

And when officers subsequently entered Ness’s property they discovered a cannabis plantation growing in a bedroom.

Ness pleaded guilty to sending indecent communications to an adult he believed to be a child and to supplying cannabis when he appeared in the dock at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today.

The court heard Wolf Pack Hunters UK members set up various online accounts in the name of 13-year-old Millie Thomas in a bid to entice child sex abusers to contact them.

Prosecutor Katy Murray said Ness, from Edinburgh, first made contact with the Skype and What’s App accounts in February last year and the conversations soon turned sexual.

Ms Murray said during the What’s App chats the girl said she was 13 and Ness had claimed to be 39.

The fiscal said Ness asked Millie if she “played with herself” and encouraged her to go online to watch porn movies to learn more about sex.

The Wolf Pack Hunters UK members turned up at Ness’s home on March 23 last year and live streamed the sting on their Facebook page.

Police arrived soon after to find the paedo hunter gang with their faces covered with scarves and confronting Ness about his online chats.

Ness invited the officers into his home and they discovered the cannabis farm due to the pungent odour drifted through the house.

Officers found 167 grams of dope along with a further three plants, two sets of scales and resealable bags. Text messages on his phone proved he had been selling the Class B drug to others.
The fiscal added the total value of the drugs found was £2420.
Sheriff Frank Crowe placed Ness on the sex offenders register for a term still to be decided and deferred full sentence for the preparation of reports to next month.

Ness admitted to communicating with an adult he believed to be a 13-year-old child and sending indecent comments to her from an address at Corslet Place, Edinburgh, between February 1 and March 23 last year.
He also pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cannabis to others from the same address on March 23 last year.