Serious risk to kids, but predator dodges jail

A MAN who admitted grooming a 14-year-old boy on Facebook yesterday walked free from court despite posing a serious risk to children.

Ryan Strathie avoided a jail sentence despite social workers’ assessment that he is at ‘high risk’ of committing further sexual crimes.

The 22-year-old convicted paedophile was placed on the sex offenders’ register for three years and almost collapsed with relief outside Perth Sheriff Court.

Sheriff Gillian Wade said: ‘He is assessed as being at high risk of reconviction and at high risk of further sexual offending.’

She told Strathie: ‘It is clear from reading the reports you do have some insight into the seriousness of the offence and the consequences of it upon you.

‘It is essential that I impose a sentence which not only penalises the offending behaviour, but takes into account the high risk you pose to children in particular, and the high risk of you sexually offending in future.’

However, Strathie was ordered to carry out 120 hours’ unpaid work, placed under supervision for three years and told to complete the Moving Forward making Changes programme.

Strathie sent graphic messages to the teenage boy he befriended on Facebook and was eventually reported to police by his own mother.

The messages were discovered when he used a friend’s phone to log in to his Facebook account then forgot to log out.

He was thrown out of his sister’s home after confessing to his contact with the child.

Strathie admitted sending the sexually explicit text messages to the teenager at an address in Perth between July 6 and August 8 last year.

Solicitor Pauline Cullerton, defending, said: ‘He accepts full responsibility for his offending.

‘He was very upset at how he has behaved.’