A pervert politician who told an undercover detective he wanted to rape a child has avoided jail.

Former Labour councillor David Fagan, 53, who used depraved websites to investigate “taboo” subjects including having sex with a parent and child, was targeted in a police sting.

The dad of two, of Airdrie, shared warped fantasies about incest while talking to an undercover policewoman who had been alerted to him.

She told him she was a 40-year-old mum of three from London and Fagan exchanged explicit messages discussing sexual fantasies involving her and children.

Fagan was arrested after the conversations in 2016.

(Image: Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser)

Airdrie Sheriff Court heard claims he had agreed to pay money to meet the woman and rape one of her children in her presence.

Fagan said he never planned to carry out the rape but did fantasise about perverted sex acts.

He was convicted of sending messages in relation to incest, the sex abuse of children and the rape of a child between May and August 2016.

Fagan has been ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work and will be supervised for three years.

Sheriff Frank Pieri said: “You have been the author of your own downfall.”

Fagan was a councillor in Lanarkshire until last year. He also worked for Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard as an election agent in the 2016 Holyrood poll.