BRIAN EDWARDS OF GALASHIELS AVOIDS PRISON SENTENCE AFTER ONLINE SEXUAL COMMUNICATIONS

A pensioner from Galashiels, Brian Edwards, aged 68, has avoided a jail term after being caught in a police sting involving inappropriate online communications with someone he believed to be a 12-year-old girl. Selkirk Sheriff Court was told that Edwards urged the supposed ‘youngster’ to send him “naughty pictures,” and he arranged to meet her at the Galashiels Transport Interchange in April last year. He advised her to tell anyone asking that she was his granddaughter. During the exchanges, Edwards asked about sharing a bed and whether she would be wearing sexy underwear, calling her a “naughty sweetheart” and saying “age was only a number.” However, he was actually communicating with an undercover police officer who had created a fake online profile to attract his attention.

When police executed a search at his home, they discovered more than a hundred indecent images of children on his mobile phone. Defence lawyer Ed Hulme explained that Edwards suffered from an acquired brain injury linked to previous alcohol abuse.

Edwards faced charges of attempting to communicate with someone he believed to be under 13, attempting to meet that person, and possessing indecent images of children. After reviewing a psychological report, Sheriff Peter Paterson sentenced him to a community payback order with supervision for 18 months instead of imprisonment. The court also imposed a six-month night-time curfew, requiring Edwards to remain at his Tulley Court residence from 7 pm to 7 am.

Additionally, Edwards was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for the next five years.