TradeMe

Young mothers and childcare workers contacted by man using fake accounts for grooming via Facebook Messenger and Trade Me, leading to 2024 conviction for child exploitation material

Zeb Noel Gordon Laing created fake social media accounts to contact young mothers and made disturbing comments about their children. He posed as a parent named Holly Jamieson on Facebook Messenger and as Emma Jones and Emma McGregor to two childcare teachers in 2024. Laing also contacted an expectant mother through a Trade Me advertisement, asking disturbing questions about her pregnancy. He posted images of himself dressed in soiled nappies and children’s underwear, and made sexually explicit comments online. Laing was sentenced in 2024 to 12 months of home detention and placed on the sex offender register after being found guilty of possessing and distributing child exploitation material and other offences. He had prior convictions for similar digital harms in 2022 and 2023.