Denny diving instructor tried to involve 'girl (14)' in his strange foot fetish

Michael Bramham (44) was caught after English police targeting online child abuse placed an advert on Gumtree in the guise of a 14-year-old schoolgirl offering babysitting services in Newcastle and Sunderland.

A female officer posing as the girl was then contacted by a man calling himself "Mike" – soon identified as Bramham.

The father-of-one asked her if she was interested in "a modelling job" which would be "clothed and suitable for her age", offering to pay her £100.

First offender Bramham, now of Bonaly, Edinburgh, pleaded guilty at Falkirk Sheriff Court to attempting to communicate indecently with an older child, for the purposes of sexual gratification, on various occasions between January 20 and February 20, 2020.

Procurator fiscal depute Cheryl Clark said: "He said he had kids himself and repeatedly asked her to send him photographs of herself. He went into details about what he would want to do with her feet."

Bramham promised a photoshoot, and suggested they could meet on a weekday after school.

Going into details of what he wanted her to do, he said: "You'll be barefoot and bare-legged and getting gunge poured on the soles of your feet, standing in buckets of gunge, and sat on a chair using your feet to pick sweets out of basins of goo."

She asked him if he wanted her to tell her mother, and Bramham e-mailed back “Best not to”.

He said he would "get a placed booked" and wanted to do the shoot before the end of February 2020.

He emailed: "Assume you'll be coming straight from school. What do you normally wear? When are you 15? Not important, just curious."

Ms Clark said: "The communication continued and 'Mike' told her to delete emails so her mother wouldn't see them."

Bramham then made several requests to photograph her bare feet and told her he had booked an apartment at a hotel in Newcastle and he would be there from 12 onwards.

Ms Clark said: "He made reference to her doing 'extra bits for money'. This would involve him smelling her feet and placing his nose between her toes and her rubbing her sweaty feet in her face."He said if she was "still interested in discussing some other bits" he could pay her £160 to £200.

He told her he could not give her his number, "as the missus might pick up if you call", adding there was "nothing to be nervous about" and she would be "treated with respect".The communications were traced to Bramham's home in Glenbo Drive, Denny and at 8am on June 10, 2020 the property was visited by officers with a warrant.

Bramham's wife was there with a young child but he was away working, and was arrested at 4.30pm that day on a sea pier at Achiltibuie, near Ullapool in Ross-Shire.

He remarked to police: "I had a feeling the person I was speaking to wasn't real."

Defence solicitor Gary McAteer reserved mitigation and Sheriff Simon Collins QC deferred sentence for reports until March 17, placing Bramham on the sex offenders' register.

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