TRANENT MAN WHO SENT SEXUAL VIDEOS TO 'SCHOOLGIRL' AVOIDS JAIL
A TRANENT man who was caught sending indecent material including messages and videos to a person he believed was a young schoolgirl has avoided prison.Darren Melrose sent footage of a male exposing himself and a second clip of a man performing a solo sex act to a Snapchat account he believed to belong to a 13-year-old girl called Ava.
But the 21-year-old was in fact in contact with an undercover police officer who had set up the fake account in a bid to catch online child sex predators.
Melrose, who was staying at an address on Steading View in Tranent at the time, was told the child’s age during the conversations but continued to send the material on June 25 last year.
Police officers attended at the property he shared with a family member the following day, and a mobile phone and laptop were confiscated from his bedroom.
He was arrested and, during an interview at Dunfermline Police Station, he was said to have “spoken freely” about his offending and admitted sending the messages and videos.
Melrose, who has since moved to St Andrew Street, Dalkeith, pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to communicate indecently with a child when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.
He returned to the dock for sentencing last week, where Sheriff Kenneth Campbell spared him a jail term and instead placed him on a community payback order with an 18-month supervision element.
Melrose was also told to carry out 190 hours of unpaid work and will have to engage with the CISSO sex offenders rehabilitation programme.
Sheriff Campbell also said that Melrose would have his name added to the sex offenders' register for the next 18 months.
