Bonnyrigg man caught in online sting sending sexual images and messages to 'schoolgirl'
A man who was caught in an online police sting sending sexual messages and images to a profile he believed belonged to a young schoolgirl has escaped a jail term.
David McNeish, 39, sent the messages and images to the ‘14-year-old child’ along with depraved requests for naked pictures of the girl.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told McNeish was in fact sending the messages to an undercover police officer posing as a child in a bid to catch online child sex predators.
Police subsequently raided his home and discovered indecent images of children on his phone along with evidence of McNeish discussing the sexual abuse of children with fellow paedophiles on an online chat forum.
McNeish, of Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, pleaded guilty to attempting to communicate indecently with a child and to possessing indecent images of children during a hearing at the capital court earlier this year.
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He also admitted to discussing the sexual abuse of children with others currently unknown, all from his home between June 7 and November 28 last year.
He was back in the dock for sentencing on Monday where Sheriff Gillian Sharp spared him custody and placed him on the sex offenders register for three years and imposed a sexual harm prevention order for five years.
McNeish was also placed on a social work supervision order for three years and must stay within his home address between 9pm and 6am for the next 12 months.
Previously fiscal depute Cheryl Porter told the court McNeish had made contact with ‘a child named Brook’ on the Kik messaging app before moving the messaging to Snapchat on June 6 last year.
Ms Porter said over the following seven days McNeish had made sexual comments regarding his genitals, sent the victim sexual images and messages.
The court heard the child was in fact an undercover operative and police officers raided his property and seized a two mobile phones on November 28 last year.
The devices contained 128 pictures and videos of “children aged between eight and 12-years-old engaging in... sexual activity” with many at Category A - the most extreme end of the scale.
Chat logs from the Kik app also showed McNeish had been in contact with several unknown men on an online group concerning the sexual abuse of young children.