A prolific paedophile who sent highly explicit messages to five undercover cops posing as schoolgirls has been jailed.
Twisted Ewan Rawlings was sentenced this week after failing to convince a jury that he had only been indulging in fantasy roleplay.
The 30-year-old former footballer, from Bankfoot, still insists he knew the decoy accounts were operated by adults.
He said at first he thought they were involved in specialist sexual roleplay and were pretending to be children.
The pervert later told his trial he believed the accounts were run by “vigilantes” and decided to play along to “wind them up”.
His outlandish claims were rejected by jurors who took less than two hours to find him guilty of nine charges of attempting to communicate indecently with children between August 10 and October 26 2021.
Rawlings, who admitted having a hidden stash of child abuse images and films, blamed being stuck at home during Covid for falling down an internet pornography rabbit hole.
Perth Sheriff Court heard how he instructed another online creep to send him increasingly explicit videos involving children, telling them: “The younger the better.”
‘Bewildering’ amount of charges
Sheriff William Wood told Rawlings: “Having presided over this trial, I have to say that elements of it were extremely disturbing.
“The jury did not believe you when you said this was no more than roleplay.
“They thought that you did believe you were engaging with children, rather than adults passing themselves off as children.”
He said: “There was not just one, not just two, but actually five undercover operatives posing as female teenage children.
“The fact there were so many within such a short space of time is somewhat bewildering.
“Either you were extremely unlucky, having been identified by five undercover profiles.
“Or you were seeking to make contact with so many females that you happened upon the five that eventually led to your prosecution.”
The sheriff said: “Given the nature and number of the charges, a custodial sentence is inevitable.”
He described an exchange between Rawlings and another online creep as “really quite vile.
“Your insistence that this person provide you with ever more extreme forms of child pornography was quite repellent and abhorrent.”
Jailing him for two years, the sheriff said: “It is hoped that you spend your time in custody reflecting on what brought you here.
“It’s quite clear that your interest in children pre-dates Covid-19.
“And it’s also notable that by the time these offences were noticed, we were through the worst of the pandemic.”
Rawlings, who appeared via video link, was also placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
Spending his days online
The court heard that Rawlings had fallen into a “bad place” after suffering an injury playing football.
He spent his days at home searching out children and chatting with fellow creeps on social media app Kik.
Solicitor David Holmes, defending, said: “He had a number of issues.
“He was spending far too much time on his computer accessing pornography.
“He says he was under the impression the people he was dealing with were like-minded adults.”
Mr Holmes said his client still insisted it was nothing more than fantasy roleplay.
“He had no intention of every meeting a child in person,” he said.
“He is extremely upset by the harm he has caused.”
‘The younger the better’
Speaking from the witness box, Rawlings insisted that he thought the five children, aged 12 and 13, were adults engaging in “age play”.
“Is that a fantasy of yours?” asked fiscal depute Emma Farmer.
“It’s an overall fantasy, yes,” he replied.
He said he “sometimes” got sexual gratification from acting out online and said he had occasionally pretended to be a child.
But asked under cross-examination if he had a sexual interest in children Rawlings replied: “Absolutely not at all.”
Jurors were then shown his reactions when an anonymous Kik user sent him five horrific videos of children as young as two being raped.
In one response Rawlings wrote: “Good…Shame there’s no sound on that.”
He repeatedly asked for more graphic videos.
When asked by the poster about children, Rawlings wrote: “The younger the better.”
The court heard that 22 child abuse images were found on Rawlings’ phone when police raided his Main Street home.
For more local court content visit our page or join us on Facebook.
