A BEITH man has been placed on the sex offenders register after trying to pass off a Facebook account sharing pictures of schoolgirls as an "attempt at humour".

Alan Dickie set up an account on the social media platform which, in addition to the photos, which were posted without the pupils' knowledge, included explicit comments about those in the images.

The 46-year-old committed the offence at his home address in the town's Sycamore Court and elsewhere between January 6 and May 30, 2022.

Dickie appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court for to find out his fate after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to a charge of a breach of the peace. 

A background report had been sought from social workers prior to sentencing.

The charge stated that as well as creating a Facebook account and posting images of schoolgirls without their knowledge, Dickie posted messages in relation to the images which were of a "sexually explicit and indecent" nature.

His squalid behaviour came to light when he sent a request to a woman inviting her to view the page.

Defence solicitor Peter Murray said his client had never appeared in court before and described Dickie's behaviour and motivation as "inexplicable".

Mr Murray said the incident happened at a time when Dickie was banned from a variety of other social media platforms.

"The messages were attempts at humour," the solicitor added, "though he accepts that some of the comments and postings were inappropriate.

"They were posted while he was under the influence of drink. He exercised poor judgement.

"Drink is never an excuse, and this remains a concerning matter nonetheless, though it seems to be an isolated incident.

"The content of these posts was unacceptable and upset those who came across them.

"He has expressed remorse for his conduct during this period of time."

However, Sheriff Fraser said the social work report appeared to suggest Dickie had not accepted responsibility for his behaviour.

She added: “While you have demonstrated acceptance of your actions, to a certain extent, you are minimising responsibility.

“Drink is never an excuse for criminal behaviour.

“In the circumstances of this offence, in most cases, there would be no alternative but a custodial sentence."

However, Sheriff Fraser decided instead on a community-based sentence, which she described as "a direct alternative to custody".

The sentencing hearing was not told whether Dickie had taken the pictures himself or whether the images showed schoolgirls from the local area.

 

Dickie was put on a community payback order with 18 months of social work supervision and placed on the sex offenders register for five years.

He was also placed on a restriction of liberty order confining him to his home address between 8pm and 6am every night for eight weeks.

Electronic monitoring equipment will be installed to ensure he complies with the curfew.