Police officer made sexual comments to undercover officer posing as 12-year-old girl

A police officer made sexual comments to an undercover officer posing as a 12-year-old schoolgirl.

Adam McManus, 40, was a front-line constable at Cumbernauld Police Station when he was caught by an undercover officer posing on the messaging service Kick as a young girl.

Prosecutor Jennifer Barnier said prior to this, McManus worked as a school campus police officer covering two high schools in Airdrie “for a number of years”.

Ms Barnier told Falkirk Sheriff Court that McManus was caught after an investigation under “Operation Overview”, a covert police operation combating online child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Ms Barnier said: “The Operation Overview objectives are to identify and swiftly bring to justice offenders who pose a risk to children once all conventional police tactics have been exhausted.”

McManus contacted a police officer working as a decoy, who was posing on Kick Messenger as a teenage girl named “Chloe”.

Ms Barnier said: “During their initial communication on January 9, 2025, she said that she was a 12-year-old girl in her first year of high school in Airdrie.”

He asked about her school uniform and asked her to send photographs of her wearing it. She confirmed, during a second online communication, that she was in school at the time, and he asked her if she liked short skirts and asked her to send him photographs.

In later online communications from his then home in Larbert, he made references to her underwear and asked her about her sexual experiences.

Ms Barnier said: “She reminded him she was 12 and he continued to ask about her sexual activity.”

Police raided his then home and found evidence of the conversations on his phone, as well as conversations with another paedophile about how they would abuse children.

They also found 25 child abuse videos and some still child abuse images.

Married McManus, a father of one, pleaded guilty to sexual communication with an undercover officer pretending to be a child, between January 9 and February 4, 2025.

He also admitted downloading child abuse images between August 30, 2023 and February 11, 2025, as well as indecent electronic communication with the paedophile between February 27, 2024 and August 27, 2024.

The court heard he was “currently suspended from duty”.

Solicitor Pamela Rodgers, defending, said McManus had “taken steps to address” the cause of his offending.

Sheriff Maryam Labaki deferred the sentence for reports until February 6.

She revoked bail and remanded McManus in custody.

She told him: “At the time of these offences, you were a serving police officer and had previously been employed as a school campus police officer. The custody threshold is met, and therefore bail is revoked.”