Offender’s false ID to date mother

A sex offender ignored a court order to stay away from children and took on a false identity to date a young mum via social media.

Michael Harlow, 23, a prisoner at Perth, admitted that between June 11 and 26 at a house in Dunfermline, he breached a Risk of Sexual Harm Order which prevented him having contact with any child under the age of 16.

Depute fiscal Claire Bremner told Dunfermline Sheriff Court that the woman was a single parent with a young son and daughter.

She had put her profile on a Facebook dating site and began online conversations with Harlow, who was acting under the name of Michael Hatchet.

He began to spend nights at the house and was in contact with the children.

The mother reported that most of Harlow’s attention was aimed at her daughter and she began to feel uneasy with his presence in the home.

After ending the relationship, she later received a message from a woman who said she was Harlow’s former partner, that he was a sex offender and was using a false name.

Sheriff Simon Collins told Harlow this had been a “serious, premeditated and prolonged” breach of the Risk of Sexual Harm Order and ordered Harlow to serve 263 days in prison, the unexpired portion of a previous sentence.

He also sentenced him to serve 22 months consecutive to that term for this latest offence.