September 2014 Man Escapes Jail After Trying To Lure Youngster An Ardrossan man who tried to lure a young boy into his van with a bed in the back has escaped jail. 63-year old Eddie Montgomery tried to tempt the 11 year old boy into his vehicle in Dreghorn with the promise of sweets – he also followed two other youngsters in Ardrossan and Saltcoats. He was found guilty three charges of breach of the peace between February 2012 and May 2013 after admitting being in the locations but he denied staring at the children. Montgomery was given 240 hours unpaid work and put on the Sex Offenders Register for five years August 2014 Van man who tried to lure 11-year-old with sweets faces jail A man is facing jail after being convicted of trying to entice a young boy into his van – with a bed fitted in the back. Eddie Montgomery, 63, is said to have pulled up beside a boy of 11 in Dreghorn and said: “Do you want to come into my van to get some sweets?” The child ran away in tears and police circulated an emergency description of Montgomery and his vehicle. PC Lee Wilson had just let Montgomery go after a routine check when the urgent message came over his radio. He was told to stop the van again and look in the back. PC Wilson said: “The driver opened the van and I saw a single mattress and bedding. There were red-coloured panels fitted on the inside.” Montgomery was taken into custody. A woman said her 11-year-old grandson was in a “terrible state” after a white van braked heavily beside
him and the driver asked him to get in. The man said to the boy: “All right wee man. Do you want to come into my van to get some sweets?” The woman, 58, identified the driver as Montgomery, sitting in the dock at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court. She said her grandson was crying and upset after the incident in Dreghorn’s Islay Court, adding: “He was saying the man tried to get him inside his van.” A boy of nine described his terror after spotting a white van approaching after a young girl was “kidnapped” in a similar vehicle. The youngster had been playing with his 11-year-old brother and a friend, 12, at the shore in Ardrossan. He told the court through a video-link: “He reversed and stopped and kept looking to see where we were going. “A few weeks before we read in the paper that a wee girl had been kidnapped by someone in a white van. “We got over the wall then ran through the grass. “He drove his van when he saw us running then when we climbed over the fence he stopped. “When we got to my friend’s house my mum and her mum were there and they got the police.” Asked by prosecutor Stuart McMillan how he felt, the boy replied “terrified”, adding: “He had a long beard and long hair. He scared me and his beard scared me.” A 14-year-old girl described returning from school in Saltcoats and seeing Montgomery, whose eyes “followed us all the time”. They fled into a shop for safety. Montgomery, of Ardrossan, was found guilty of three charges of breach of the peace in Dreghorn and Ardrossan between February 2012 and May 2013. He admitted being at the locations but denied staring at any children, claiming he had been looking for a friend. Sheriff Brian Murphy told Montgomery there was a “significant sexual element” and put him on the Sex Offenders Register. he will be sentenced next month.