A Scots charity worker sent vile sexual messages to an 11-year-old schoolgirl before attempting to meet up with her.
Crawford Robertson lured the child into chatting to him on the Snapchat app by pretending to be a teenager before he began sending her the sordid messages. Robertson, 22, told the vulnerable victim he wanted to kiss her and asked her to engage in sexual activity with him and then arranged to meet up in Edinburgh in November 2022.
The pervert turned to meet up with the youngster at the capital’s Wester Hailes shopping centre but ran off when a family friend of the child’s parents intervened. Robertson was later arrested by police and he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in October last year where he pleaded guilty to two sexual offences involving the child.
He admitted sending indecent communication to the youngster and attempting to meet up her with the intention of engaging in sexual activity. Robertson returned to the dock for sentencing on Friday, January 10, where Sheriff Matthew Auchincloss spared him custody and instead issued an “onerous” community payback order.
The sheriff said: “Quite clearly you have pled guilty to two serious charges which will be of concern to the public. The custody threshold has clearly been crossed but I am attaching particular weight to the fact that you have no previous convictions and also your age.”
Robertson, from West Calder, West Lothian, was was placed on a social work supervision order for two years and ordered to carry out 225 hours of unpaid work in the community. He was also placed on the sex offenders register for two years and handed strict restrictions on his computer use and his contact with any child under the age of 18.
The court was told Robertson works from home on a temporary contract processing telephone calls from the public arranging donations to charity organisations. The parents of the victim were in attendance at the sentencing hearing and afterwards described Robertson as “a dangerous predator”.
The mother of the child said: “I can’t believe he wasn’t jailed for what he did to my little girl. He pretended to a teenager at first to win her trust before sending her disgusting sexual suggestions about what they could do together.
“She was only 11 at the time – what kind of person does that? We are just lucky that a friend of the family was there to chase him off or who knows what could have happened to her.”
Robertson pleaded guilty to intentionally sending sexual communications via Snapchat to an 11 year old child for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification by offering to kiss her and inviting her to engage in sexual activity on November 1, 2022.
He also admitted to attempting to meet up with the child with the intention of engaging in unlawful sexual activity at Wester Hailes Plaza, Edinburgh, on the same date.
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