MIDLOTHIAN MAN THOUGHT HE WAS MESSAGING 'SCHOOLGIRL' UNTIL POLICE RAIDED HOME
A Midlothian pervert has been caught in an undercover police sting after he sent disgusting sexual messages and images to who he believed to be a young schoolgirl.David McNeish, 39, posted images of his erect private parts to the ‘14-year-old child’ along with sleazy demands for her to send him naked pictures of herself.
But instead of a child McNeish was in fact speaking with an undercover police officer who had set up social media accounts in the name of ‘Brook’ in a bid to snare online child sex predators.
Police then discovered he had been downloading horrific sex abuse images involving children as young as eight-years-old to his mobile phone when officers raided his home in November last year.
The officers also found evidence on his device that McNeish had been discussing the sexual abuse of children with fellow perverts on an online chat forum.
McNeish appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday where he pleaded guilty to two offences of attempting to communicate indecently with a child, and to possessing indecent images of children.
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.
Lawyer David Allan, defending, said his client, from Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, is “aware of the serious position he is in” and asked for his bail to be continued.
Sheriff Fiona Sharp said: “Due to the nature of the charges which you pled guilty to I am required to call for a criminal justice social work report and restriction of liberty order assessment.” The sheriff agreed to release McNeish on bail pending the preparation of the reports.
Prosecutor Cheryl Porter told the court McNeish had first made contact with “Brook’ from Essex on the Kik messaging app before moving the sordid chats to Snapchat on June 6 last year.
Police Scotland were handed the evidence collected against McNeish and raided his home with a search warrant at around 7.45am on November 28 last year.
Officers seized a mobile phone and an examination of the device found five videos and images of “children aged between eight and 12-years-old engaging in oral and vaginal sexual activity”.
A further mobile device was also located and a total of 45 images and 78 videos of children being sexually abused were discovered including many rated at Category A - the most depraved 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.
Sentence was deferred to next month.
