July 2020 Hawick 37-year-old awaiting sentencing for sending indecent messages to children under ages of 13 and 16 Sentence has been deferred on a 37-year-old man convicted of breaching the 2009 Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act on three occasions. Ashley Bell, of Hawick, will be sentenced at Jedburgh Sheriff Court on Monday, August 17, for intentionally sending a sexual communication to a child under 13 years of age and communicating indecently with a child under 16 and also an adult. Bell is currently remanded in custody in connection with another allegation of indecently communicating with a child under 16 and failing to notify police within three days of a change of circumstances. He made no plea in that case and has been fully committed for trial. 15 September 2017: Spotted this morning right outside Hawick High School at break time May 2015 Facebook ‘weirdo’ placed on Sex Offenders Register A 31-YEAR-OLD man who sent messages of a sexual nature to a 14-year-old on a social media site has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register for three years. Ashley Bell of Earl Street, Hawick, was also sentenced to a three-year Community Payback Order. Jedburgh Sheriff Court heard last Tuesday how Bell and been communicating with young females on Facebook, and some 500 private messages were found, including some of a sexually explicit nature in a conversation with a 14-year-old. Procurator fiscal Graham Fraser said: “There was some concern about his behaviour contacting young females on Facebook. “There were 500 private messages, several of a sexually explicit nature, and one particular conversation in the course of which the girl said she was 14.” The fiscal said that Bell told the girl “you don’t know what kind of weirdos are out there” and asked if it was her bedtime. He also enquired if she had “been to bed with a man” and asked if she got “horny”. When the girl asked the accused what he looked like, he told her he was “fit and sexy” and had a “big c**k.”