Despite Robert Agnew Ratho, the Edinburgh Paedophile’s guilty plea to sending sexual messages and photographs of his genitalia to a “14-year-old schoolgirl,”, the Edinburgh pervert has been freed from custody.
Before sending nasty sexual remarks and an image of his penis on the WhatsApp messaging app, Robert Agnew messaged a social media account he thought belonged to the child. Agnew was discovered when the person he was in touch with turned out to be a member of a paedophile hunter group who later approached him in his Ratho neighbourhood of the capital.
After the police were summoned to handle the matter, 37-year-old Robert Agnew was arrested and charged. The web sting was aired live on the group’s Facebook page. Following his arrest in March of this year, Agnew appeared at the sheriff’s court and was remanded in jail.
Following his prior guilty plea to a charge of indecent communication during a court hearing last month, he returned to the dock for sentencing on Tuesday. Robert Agnew contacted a Facebook account under the name of 14-year-old Stacey Sugden from Manchester, according to prosecutor Cheryl Porter, but a hunter club member ran it called Fleetwood Enforcers UK.
Ms Porter said Robert Agnew told the girl he worked for FedEx as a warehouse worker that she was “wonderful” and asked her to forward the communication to WhatsApp. Over the next five days, Robert Agnew sent messages, including seeking to meet with the girl and remarks regarding her genitalia. The filthy communication persisted.
The sicko questioned what kind of pants she wore and submitted pictures of his erect penis, asking, “Do you like the photos?” to the court.
Saying, “Come and join me in my bed” and “I keep dreaming about your p***y and boobs,” he also wrote nasty notes. Attending Agnew’s house at approximately 11 pm on April 5 this year, members of the paedophile hunting organisation videotaped the confrontation with Robert Agnew; later on, the police were contacted.
The sheriff remarked: “Although meeting with a 14-year-old girl was discussed ultimately, it is suggested this was just fantasy, and there was no real intention to carry through with this.”
Robert Agnew was released from detention by Sheriff Walls, who then directly replaced custody with three years of supervision by the social work department. Agnew added his name to the Sex Offenders Register for the next three years and was sentenced to 260 hours of unpaid work in the community.
Robert Agnew admitted to sending sexual messages to a 14-year-old female who was an adult from his Ratho, Edinburgh, house between March 23 and 29 this year.
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