A 67-year-old was caught sending indecent images to an undercover police officer who he thought was a child.
Douglas Winter used a dating site in an effort to groom a child before asking for lewd images via WhatsApp.
A report has now been ordered after he admitted trying to sexually communicate with a child from his Dundee home.
Winter was stung as part of a police operation, with an individual working with the force posing as a child on the dating site.
Prosecutor Kate Scarborough told Dundee Sheriff Court: “The accused engaged with this profile on that platform before moving to WhatsApp.
“The ‘child’ makes it clear they are aged 14.
“On numerous occasions, the accused tried to obtain photos and sent photos of himself.”
Ms Scarborough said Winter made numerous sexual remarks, as well as sending an indecent photo of himself.
Police later arrested Winter, who admitted trying to sexually communicate with a child between August 7 and 15 2023 from his home on Murrayfield Gardens.
Sentence was deferred until August by Sheriff George Way who placed Winter on the sex offenders register.
Ring pervert
Ring doorbell pervert Neil Beattie, 38, who twice tormented a Perth woman with his one-man “porn movies” has been spared jail. Despite being caught and charged after engaging in a solo sex act on his victim’s front door video recorder in Perth, he returned to the same door weeks later and carried out a near identical offence – this time lasting three hours.
‘Quite calm’
A raging boyfriend who threw his TV into the kitchen and stamped on it until it smashed told police: “I was quite calm actually.”
Perth Sheriff Court heard David Simpson lost the plot at his home in Carsie, near Blairgowrie, and ordered his terrified partner to flee.
He pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner on April 27 this year.
Fiscal depute Stuart Hamilton said Simpson had gone to the pub at about 3pm and returned home “shouting and swearing at the complainer.
“He picked up the television from a corner unit and threw it across the room.
“He then threw the TV into the kitchen and started stamping on it, smashing it.”
Simpson next picked up the corner unit and lobbed it across the living room.
“He kicked and stamped on it, creating a hole in its side.”
Simpson then directed verbal abuse at his partner and ordered her from the house, from where she called police.
When later interviewed, Simpson told officer: “I threw the telly. I didn’t shout and swear, I was quite calm actually.”
Solicitor Paul Ralph, defending, said his client had seen his relationship “disintegrating”.
Sheriff Alison McKay told him: “This must have been a nasty and frightening experience for the complainer but I am satisfied this can be dealt with by way of a financial penalty.”
Simpson, of Balbeggie, was fined £500 and ordered to stay away from his ex for six months.
House crash
Van driver Ross Boag careered into a Perthshire couple’s parked car, pushing it into the wall of their house and causing severe structural damage. Perth Sheriff Court heard the property in Scone was left with a huge external crack up to the roof because of the collision.
Motability car thief
Kelty man Garry McBurney, 34, has been jailed for brandishing a knife at a Wetherspoons pub and stealing his mother’s Motability car.
Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard McBurney had been assaulted in the pub and retaliated.
McBurney, of Croftangry Road, pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner at The Guildhall & Linen Exchange in Dunfermline High Street on November 6 last year.
The offence also involved him brandishing a glass and dropping it on a table there.
He also admitted stealing the car and being in charge of it while over the legal alcohol limit (28mics/22) on the A907 and other roads on January 4 this year.
Prosecutor Azrah Yousaf told the court McBurney took the car keys without permission and made off in the vehcile – used by his grandmother – before it was crashed into a lamppost.
When police attended, McBurney was sitting in the driver seat and they smelled alcohol on his breath but he said a friend was driving and had left the scene.
Defence lawyer Aime Allan said McBurney’s offending is underpinned by alcohol misuse and he has self-referred to a support service.
Sheriff Krista Johnston accepted another male was the aggressor at the pub but pointed out McBurney picked up a knife and left the premises with it.
Se said the episode with the car was frankly disgraceful”.
Sheriff Johnston highlighted McBurney’s bad record, including three previous road traffic offences involving alcohol and being threatening and abusive involving a knife and said he has exhausted all available alternatives to custody in the past, jailing him for a year and banning him from driving for five.
Caught again
A repeat child groomer from Fife could be sent to prison after he was caught sending sexual messages to a decoy. Former cabaret singer Darren Whyte, 34, told the ‘child’ – actually an adult – he would pay £15 for indecent images in his latest crime.
Drink-driver spotted on Ring
A drink-driver who was nearly six times the limit has been slapped with a 32-month driving ban.
Robert Zdzieblo, who has a previous for a similar offence, was reported to police after he was spotted on a Ring Doorbell camera.
He appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted drink-driving (130mics/ 22) his Ford Fiesta near his home in Catmoor Avenue, Scone on May 23 this year.
The court heard that alcohol had been an underlying issue in Zdzieblo’s offending.
He had also been taking booze with pain killers.
Sheriff Alison McKay told Zdzieblo: “You put not only your safety at risk but more significantly, the safety of others.
“A financial penalty is not appropriate and I am considering an alternative disposal to custody.”
Zdzieblo was also ordered to stay at home between 7pm and 7am each night as part of a four-month restriction of liberty order.
Killer’s Facebook messages
Fife killer Cameron Allan shared an X-rated Facebook message about murder two years before his part in the death of a young father-of-three.
Monsters Allan, 21 and his former fiancée Dylan Brister, 27, were convicted earlier this month of the “most harrowing ever” murder of Calum Simpson.
Two years earlier, Allan shared a graphic that said: “A lot of us fell in love with someone that we should (have) only f***ed once. Then murdered.
He captioned the post “true”.
Supermarket creep
An Angus bigot has admitted racially abusing an Arbroath supermarket employee.
Kenneth Tough appeared at Forfar Sheriff Court to admit verbally abusing the female Tesco employee on April 13 this year.
36-year-old Tough, of Railton Crescent in Arbroath, admitted shouting, swearing and making derogatory racial remarks towards her at the Stobcross supermarket.
Sheriff Derek Reekie deferred sentencing until November 21.
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