Edinburgh crime: Man caught hiding in woods after going on the run is finally sentenced in court

Coen Bust, 47, disappeared from his Edinburgh home just hours before he was due to be sentenced for sending vile sexual messages to who he believed was a 14-year-old schoolgirl.

Police Scotland launched a manhunt including two appeals to the public along with images showing the Dutch national getting off a train at Dunkeld train station in Perthshire on March 13.

The computer specialist was eventually tracked down by officers who found him sleeping rough in a woodland area at the nearby Birnam Glen beauty spot 18 days later. Bust has been held in custody for the last seven days and appeared for sentencing in front of Sheriff Wendy Sheehan at the capital’s sheriff court today, Wednesday, April 9.

Previously the court heard Bust had used the name Buttery Robot when making contact with ‘14-year-old Sophie’ on the Chat Avenue forum before moving the contact to Snapchat in August 2023.

But instead of a child Bust was sending the sick sexual messages to an undercover police officer who had set up the profile in a bid to snare online child sex offenders.

Officers then raided Bust’s former home at the city’s New Town after tracing his IP address and he was subsequently arrested and charged on September 12, 2023.

CCTV images of Coen Bust, who went missing on the day he was due to be sentenced at court. | Police Scotland

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Bust pled guilty to the offence on January 30 this year and was placed on the sex offenders register on an interim basis by Sheriff Wendy Sheehan.

He was due to be sentenced on March 13 but failed to turn up forcing the police to launch the hunt for him.

Sheriff Sheehan sentenced Bust, of Stockbridge, Edinburgh, to a community payback order involving a two year supervision order as a direct alternative to a custodial sentence.

Sheriff Sheehan said: “You come before this court with no previous convictions and no other outstanding cases and I hope that after this matter you will not come back to court again.

“The seriousness of this offence is such that a custodial sentence is definitely one the court is considering but with offending of this type my focus is on how we prevent this happening again.”

Bust was issued with a strict conduct requirement with various internet and computer restrictions and was banned from having contact with any child under the age of 16-years-old. He was also placed on the sex offenders register for two years.

Solicitor Ross Gardner, defending, said: “The position was he had co-operated with the process of providing a report but it is undoubtedly the case that anxiety and suicidal aggravation took a part. He was aware of press reporting and essentially left the jurisdiction believing he had lost his partner and contact with his family members.”

Mr Gardner told the court his client had been receiving treatment in hospital since his arrest last week.

Bust pleaded guilty to contacting who he believed to be a child, but was in fact an undercover police officer, for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification by sending sexual written communication and describing sexual activity he would like to engage in with her.

He also admitted to making arrangements to travel with the intention of meeting the child to engage with unlawful sexual activity with them, all between August 23 and September 4, 2023.