The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Pervert in sex terror campaign
Aserial crank call pervert has been placed on the sex offenders register after he waged a campaign of sexual terror against a woman he had never met.
Darren Cran, 30, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted bombarding a young woman with graphic and sexually violent messages over a nearly two-year period.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told his victim “begged” Cran to stop but he refused and sent more pictures of his private parts and sick messages.
Cran – who has previous convictions for stalking women and crank calling emergency service workers – also made a sexually offensive comment to a female police officer.
Yesterday, his solicitor Christopher Maitland asked the court to make Cran subject to a mental health assessment order under the care of medical professionals.
Fiscal depute Rebecca Thompson told the court that the woman – who had never met Cran – only contacted him initially because her friend had been receiving unwanted messages from him.
Ms Thompson said the woman’s friend had asked her for help in dealing with Cran so she took it upon herself to message him to tell him to stop messaging her friend and blocked the account.
However, Cran then turned his attention to her instead, sending numerous sexually explicit messages requesting that she come to his house for sex and calling her a “slut”.
After a few days of receiving these messages, the woman replied rudely and abruptly to Cran to get him to stop and again blocked the account.
In response to this Cran then bombarded her with a “high volume” of vile and sexually explicit messages and voice messages through his Facebook account.
Terrified by these messages and calls, the woman tried in vain to block all the profiles Cran was using.
However, Cran then began using different social media apps to contact her, such as Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.
During this time Cran also made a threat to “kill” the woman because she wouldn’t meet him in Aberdeen city centre.
Sheriff Graham Buchanan told Cran that he would follow the recommendations of the psychiatric reports provided for the court and make him subject to a compulsion order and receive medical treatment.
He also placed Cran, whose address was given as Royal Cornhill Hospital, Aberdeen, on the sex offenders register for seven years and put an indefinite non-harassment order in place, meaning Cran cannot approach the female complainer for life.