Social workers recommended just 12 months of supervision for a dangerous paedophile who sent “extremely disturbing” messages to what he thought was a 12-year-old boy.
Darren Watt – who also had indecent images of children as young as 8 on his phone – was then allowed to hide inside social work offices for over an hour before being snuck out of a side door with his face masked.
Watt’s own solicitor admitted the recommendation of the social workers was not realistic and sheriff slammed the paedophile’s messages to an undercover cop posing as a child as “extremely disturbing”.
The 44-year-old, who also distributed child sexual abuse material to others online, tried to evade having his photo taken, remaining in court for more than two hours after his case had called.
Fiscal depute Jane Spark told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that on February 10 last year, a police officer, posing as a 12-year-old boy called Samuel, joined a Kik group chat.
‘Samuel’ posted the message: “Hey!! Anyone else off school today cos of the snow.
“I’m bored. My PM is open.”
At 10.50am, ‘Samuel’ received a direct message from Watt reading: “What age are u? Into?”
They entered into a conversation and the police officer advised they were 12 years old.
The following month, Watt messaged ‘Samuel’ asking what he was looking for on the app and asking “if he had ever seen his father naked before”.
Watt continued to send the ‘child’ disgusting messages, including requests to see his private parts.
A few days later, Watt messaged the ‘child’ advising he was from Scotland and adding: “Love to talk dirty”.
As the conversation continued and grew increasingly unsettling, Watt asked if ‘Samuel’ had had sexual experiences.
He also made reference to carrying out sexual acts involving the child.
Home searched and indecent images found
By March 17 2023, Watt progressed to asking if ‘Samuel’ would take out his genitals and that he wanted to see them.
The conversation moved to Snapchat, with Watt asking questions about Samuel’s school friends.
Their communication ceased on March 28 2023.
In May 10 2023, the National Child Abuse Investigation Unit received information concerning the conversations between Watt and ‘Samuel’ that led to a search warrant being granted for his home address.
On searching his address, officers found an iPhone containing indecent images of children aged between 8 and 13.
A total of 19 accessible images and videos of children were found on the device, including nine videos classed as category A – the most serious.
A further 38 images and videos of children were “inaccessible”.
The earliest creation date of files containing an indecent image or video of a child was September 16 2022, with the latest being May 18 2023.
Ms Spark told the court: “The cumulative play length of the videos was approximately 9 minutes and 55 seconds.”
‘This is an extremely depressing case’
Also recovered from the phone were five different chat logs on the Kik messenger app which contained child sexual exploitation and abuse material that Watt had sent to others.
Watt, of Oscar Road, Aberdeen, pled guilty to attempting to communicate sexually with a child under 13.
He also admitted to charges of taking, permitting to be taken or making, and distributing or showing, indecent images of children.
Defence agent Iain Hingston said his client had no previous convictions of a similar nature.
He said: “This is an extremely depressing case and an extremely depressing narrative we’ve all just heard.
“Mr Watt presents in the criminal justice social work report as something of a lonely and isolated figure.”
The court-ordered social work report recommended the case be dealt with simply by the imposition of 12 months of supervision.
Mr Hingston added: “I’d be very surprised if my lord considered that to be appropriate.”
‘You knew what was happening’
He went on: “There are clearly deep-rooted and deep-seated issues in anyone committing this type of offence.”
Mr Hingston acknowledged that offences of this nature are “deplorable” but emphasised that those in Watt’s situation can be helped to change their ways with the right assistance.
Sheriff Andrew Miller, referring to an explanation given to social workers by Watt, told him: “There’s no question of any misunderstanding on your part. You knew what was happening during that exchange.
“The narrative provided by the Crown is extremely disturbing.
“That’s before we come to the child abuse images later discovered on a device at your home address when it was searched by police officers.
“There’s no question these are offences for which a sentence of imprisonment could be imposed.”
However, the sheriff explained that cognitive behavioural programme work designed to address Watt’s thought processes may well not be available if he was jailed.
Sheriff Miller also noted from the social work report that Watt acts as a carer for a vulnerable adult.
He said: “Despite the very serious nature of these offences, ultimately I’m persuaded the balance falls in favour of imposing an onerous community sentence.”
As a direct alternative to imprisonment, Watt was ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work, be supervised for three years and carry out work on the Moving Forward, Making Changes programme for three years.
He was also placed on the sex offenders register for three years.
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