Threatened to send nude pics from phone

Andrew Allan (43) was told by a sheriff that his behaviour had to be seen against his background of “extreme sexual violence”.

Stirling Sheriff Court was told yesterday his 20-year-year-old victim either lost her phone, or had it stolen, during a night out in Falkirk in October 2015.

She cancelled it with her phone company, but did not report the loss to police.

The court heard the phone contained “various pictures” that she had taken of herself naked in the bath, edited, and sent via social messaging exclusively to her boyfriend and no-one else.

Two months later she received a creepy email from Allan, who was a stranger to her, with the subject line, “I know all about you”.

The message read: “Maybe I’ll send the acid tab video to your mum and the naked ones to people on your friends list. I wrote it all down.

“What’s it worth to keep them all private?

“Get back to me soon or I’ll start posting.”

Allan added a warning that the woman should not tell anyone – and attached some of the shots of her naked in the bath.

Prosecutor Lindsey Brooks said Allan’s victim was “alarmed and distressed”, and sent private Facebook messages to her friends detailing the email she had received and asking for advice.

A little later she received another email that turned out to be from Allan, titled, “Not off to a good start”.

The message read: “I told you not to tell anyone. Last chance – tell anyone that replies that you were kidding or I’ll start posting.”

It added: “Who’s going to take it seriously? Think I want an answer soon.”

The court heard the woman then went straight to the police, who traced the emails to Allan via his IP address.

On February 16 last year police raided his home in Craigleith Road, Grangemouth, found the woman’s missing phone in a kitchen drawer, and Allan was arrested.

Allan, a cleaner, pleaded guilty on indictment to contravening Section 6 of the 2009 Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act by intentionally causing the woman to look at a sexual image.

His solicitor, Gordon Addison, told the court: “This case highlights the risk of leaving information on a telephone.”

After reading background reports, Sheriff Wyllie Robertson told Allan a custodial sentence was the only appropriate disposal.

In addition to two and a half years’ jail, he made him subject to an extended sentence of a further five years, during which time he can be recalled to jail if he re-offends.

He said: “You have a record for violence generally, but also for sexual violence of the most serious nature and you are assessed by social workers as at very high risk of further sexual offending.”

He said it was “an aggravating factor” that he had sent the images to the phone’s owner “against the background of your record”.

In 2003, Allan, then a waiter, was jailed for four-and-a-half years after sneaking into the bed of a 30-year-old hotel guest in the Covenanters’ Inn in Aberfoyle, Perthshire, and raping her.

In 2008 Allan was banned for life from making sexual advances to women after drinking alcohol.