A Fife man who asked for sexual images from someone he thought was a child has been put on the sex offenders register for 18 months
Gareth Edwards, 48, of Glenbervie Grove, Dunfermline, was found guilty after an earlier trial of attempting to communicate indecently with a 13-year-old child who was actually an undercover police officer.
The offending took place between January 26 and February 1 last year at his then-address at Carnock, and elsewhere.
The first offender sent the decoy messages of a sexual nature and asked her to take sexual images of herself and send them to him.
Defence lawyer Amy Harley said a social work report details childhood trauma.
The solicitor said her client’s father died in 2020, which had a significant impact on his mental health, leading to him searching for company.
Sheriff Krista Johnston noted Edwards was assessed as being low risk of reoffending and sentenced him to 200 hours of unpaid work and 18 months of offender supervision with a conduct requirement of strict conditions.
Attack duo
A man and woman have been spared jail for a “disgraceful” unprovoked attack that left their elderly victim lying in a Blairgowrie stairwell soaked in blood. Sophie Henvey and Keenan Donaldson barged into the communal close in the early hours and attacked resident Peter Hamilton.
Park assaults
Teenagers flagged down police after being sexually assaulted by a drunken creep who followed them through a Perth park and sat down next to them on a bench.
Nathan Porter, 23, an inpatient at Murray Royal Hospital, admitted attempting to kiss a 19-year-old woman in the city’s St Andrews Street on August 7 last year, before touching her buttock.
He also pled guilty to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old at the South Inch.
The court heard Porter approached his first victim, who was with friends outside a drop-in centre, just after 5pm.
Porter approached and asked her for a cigarette, then followed the teenagers as they walked to the South Inch.
“The accused came up behind the first complainer and touched her bottom,” prosecutor Stephanie Paterson said.
“She simply walked away. No words were exchanged.”
Porter then tailed them to a park bench.
He sat next to the 16-year-old and put his arm around her, before grabbing her breast.
Porter then wrapped has hand around her thigh.
The teenagers flagged down a passing police car, as Porter lay intoxicated on the bench.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis deferred sentence for further information on Porter’s ongoing mental health treatment.
Storm Babet crash
A Fife man crashed and rolled his BMW “six times” on the M90 after driving too fast and aquaplaning during Storm Babet. Cameron Weir, 25, from Inverkeithing, lost control of the X5 while travelling north on the motorway between Dunfermline and Kelty on October 21 last year.
Wrong prison
A female suspect was sent her to an all-male maximum security prison by mistake.
The biologically female prisoner was detained overnight at Perth Prison and transferred to Cornton Vale the next day.
The woman appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on Monday October 21 and was remanded in custody by a sheriff, processed as a man and taken to Perth.
After being handed over, a more detailed search was carried out and staff realised the error.
It was too late to transfer the woman to the female prison near Stirling and special measures were put in place overnight.
The woman was kept in segregation and taken to the correct prison the next day.
A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: “We don’t comment on individuals.
“We have procedures in place to keep everyone safe when someone is newly admitted, including keeping them separate from the mainstream population where appropriate.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “An individual was passed into the custody of the Scottish Prison Service with incomplete information about their gender.
“We are reviewing our custody procedure to ensure this does not happen again.”
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