Edinburgh crime: Mental health support worker caught in undercover police paedophile sting

Stuart Thorne, 50, contacted an online profile of a young child named Griff and began sending disgusting sexual comments to her in June 2023.

Thorne asked the child to send him naked images of herself, chatted about her masturbating and then sent images of his penis during the depraved contact. But instead of a young schoolgirl the health worker was in fact speaking to an undercover police officer who had set up the social media profile as part of an operation to snare online perverts.

Stuart Thorne, 50, pictured outside Edinburgh Sheriff Court. | Alexander Lawrie

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Thorne, from Stenhouse, Edinburgh, appeared for sentencing at the capital’s sheriff court yesterday, Thursday, March 27, after previously pleading guilty to attempting to communicate sexually with a young child.

Lawyer Joe Boyd, defending, told the court his client had carried out an “inexplicable” crime but has now “taken full responsibility” for the offence.

Mr Boyd said Thorne was working as a support worker at a mental health unit at the time and as a result has now lost his job and the relationship he was in has also come to an end.

The solicitor added: “He is extremely remorseful and ashamed of his behaviour. Essentially it came about one night in particular when he had been drinking heavily and started to experiment on the app.”

Sheriff Peter McCormack placed Thorne on the sex offenders register for five years and ordered him to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work in the community as an alternative to a custodial sentence.

Thorne, who has since moved to Cottingham, near Hull, pleaded guilty to sending sexual written communication to who he believed was a child and did send messages of a sexual nature and send her images of his penis and attempt to communicate with a young child on June 26, 2023.