A GALASHIELS pensioner who was caught in a police “sting” sending sexual communications to what he thought was a 12-year-old girl has avoided a prison sentence.

Brian Edwards, 68, urged the ‘youngster’ to send him “naughty pictures”, Selkirk Sheriff Court was told.

He arranged to meet the person he knew as “Olivia” at the Galashiels Transport Interchange in April last year and told her, if anyone asked, to say she was his granddaughter.

Edwards, who also asked about sharing a bed and whether she would be wearing sexy underwear, called her a “naughty sweetheart” and told her “age was only a number”.

But he had been communicating with an undercover police officer, who set up a fake profile online which attracted his attention.

When police officers raided his home they found more than a hundred indecent images of children on a mobile phone.

Defence lawyer Ed Hulme said his client had an acquired brain injury due to past alcohol abuse.

Edwards admitted charges of attempting to communicate with someone he believed was a child under the age of 13, and attempting to meet them; as well as possession of indecent images of children.

After considering the terms of a psychological report, Sheriff Peter Paterson imposed a community payback order with supervision for 18 months as an alternative to custody.

He also placed him on a six-month night-time curfew keeping him in his home in Tulley Court for the next six months between the hours of 7pm and 7am.

In addition, Edwards had his name placed on the Sex Offenders Register for the next five years.