Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
PLAYPARK PERVERT A MENACE TO KIDS
‘ Columbine’ weirdo’s sex act outrage
A Am mum has slammed a “vile” Bargeddie man who performed sex acts on himself in front of children – just months after threatening to carry out a Columbine-style massacre at a school.
Deviant Lewis Holmes, 21, also took p photos of kids during the troubling p playpark incident last June. At Airdrie Sheriff Court last month, he was placed on the sex offenders’ register and given a community payback order – a sentence slammed by the mum, who says her child still has nightmares about the incident.
In January, Holmes was sentenced to supervision and unpaid work for threatening “another f****** Columbine” and telling staff “you’re all dead”, after he pretended to be a pupil at a Perthshire school and tried to buy pupils booze.
A deviant performed a sex act on himself in full view of young children in a playpark.
Lewis Holmes’ despicable behaviour came months after he threatened to carry out a Columbine-style massacre at a school in Perthshire.
The 21- year- old, of Bargeddie, pleaded guilty at Airdrie Sheriff Court to engaging in acts of sexual activity in a playpark.
The court heard how Holmes went to the play area and intentionally engaged in a sexual act upon himself in front of a 10-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl.
Sheriff Walter Mercer was told by the prosecutor how Holmes behaved in a threatening or abusive manner, likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm.
The fiscal depute then explained how Holmes shouted, swore and made threats of violence before taking, or pretending to take, photos of children in the playpark.
After hearing a plea in mitigation from defence lawyer John Paul Gallagher, the sheriff put Holmes on a community payback order as “an alternative to custody” and put him on the sex offenders’ register for two years.
The disgusted mum hit out at the sentence handed down to Holmes, claiming his actions had caused her child to have “repetitive nightmares and sleepless nights”.
She added: “Why is he not on the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life?
“Is it a phase he’s going through or is there a 100 per cent chance that this scumbag will be under the radar after two years and able to continue his vile behaviour? He’ll be free to hurt, terrorise and give more children nightmares for the rest of their lives.
“I think something more should be done. He has got a slap on the wrist for destroying children’s lives.
“I don’t think community service and two years on the sex offenders’ register is anywhere near adequate.”
Holmes’ latest sentence comes just weeks after he was in the dock for threatening “another f****** Columbine” at a Perthshire school in 2018.
He had pretended to be a pupil after buying booze for three students and when he was challenged by staff members because he wasn’t wearing a uniform, he unleashed a volley of abuse.
He shouted at them: “I’ll f****** kill you all. You’re all dead.”
But he then chillingly added: “Another f****** Columbine.”
That referred to the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, America, in 1999, when 12 students and a teacher were killed when senior students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting spree.
Perth Sheriff Court heard that the alarmed members of staff contacted the police – and Holmes was later traced.
For this offence, he had a community payback order imposed and will have to complete 60 hours of unpaid work within three months, and be supervised by a social worker for the next six months.
Holmes admitted shouting and swearing, acting aggressively towards staff members and making violent threats towards them.
He also pled guilty to giving alcohol to two 15-year-olds and another girl, aged 14, after visiting a Co-op store on the same day.
The accused had told police that he had bought the vodka to drink himself and that he had no recollection of making the Columbine comments to the staff members.