Chats with kids
Sent teenage victims sex pictures
A cabaret singer who once performed at a charity bash for Prince Charles was reported by a fellow crooner for talking dirty to children on Facebook.
Darren Whyte struck up sexual conversations with seven under-age girls aged 13 to 15 and one 15-yearold boy.
He sent two of his victims pictures of male genitals, told a 14- year- old girl he wanted to give her oral sex, and described a sexual dream to a 15-yearold. He boasted about the size of his manhood to the boy and then suggested “some kind of sexual practice between them”.
Whyte was living in The Wynd, Alva, at the time of the offences between August 16 2014 and February 7 2015.
The 26-year-old, now living in High Street, Tillicoultry, pleaded guilty to six charges of intentionally sending written sexual communications to children, and two of sending sexual images to children.
Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that Whyte was reported to police when another singer who performed with Whyte stumbled upon the online chats.
Graham McLachlan, prosecuting, said: “They were both singers performing at venues and the friend had access to the accused’s Facebook to allow them to advertise engagements and suchlike.
“During the course of this the friend became aware of certain contact that the accused had with people under 16, and noticed some of this was a sexual nature.”
The friend confronted Whyte, who said he had been suffering from anxiety. But after discovering that Whyte was continuing his behaviour, the fellow crooner went to police.
Mr McLachlan said: “He downloaded from the account a large amount of information onto a disc, and reported the matter to the police.
Officers analysed “chat logs” from the disc and found that Whyte had been taking part in a series of sexualised online conversations with teenage girls and with the teenage boy.
Whyte was arrested, and gave a “no comment” interview.
Sheriff John Mundy deferred sentence until next month for social background reports, and said: “These are a number of serious charges.”
Whyte was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.
Defence solicitor Mike Lowry said he would reserve mitigation for the sentencing, adding, “I’ll keep my powder dry”.
According to his Facebook page, Whyte is currently a singer at the Caledonian Music Agency.
He has uploaded covers to YouTube of songs by Elton John, Olly Muirs, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and One Direction.
In 2009, he performed before 50 top business people at a 20th birthday event for the the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust (Forth Valley region) at the Royal Hotel in Bridge of Allan.