In 2021, Andrew Halliday, then 49 years old, formerly of Parkhall Drive, Maddiston, Falkirk, was sentenced at Falkirk Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to attempting to communicate indecently with a child and attempting to meet a child with the intention of engaging in unlawful sexual activity.
The court heard details regarding an online grooming operation where Halliday exchanged over 1,000 messages across six weeks on the Twoo dating application and the WhatsApp messaging service. Halliday targeted an online profile named “Molly,” set up by the Earth Angels decoy group, which explicitly listed the user as a 14-year-old child. Prosecutor Mrs Alex Kirk outlined how Halliday discussed her family, lifestyle, and school routine before introducing graphic sexual comments and describing acts he wished to perform, specifically referencing her sexual inexperience due to her age.
Throughout the messaging, the decoy repeatedly reminded Halliday that she was 14 years old. Halliday acknowledged her age, warned her that he could get into trouble if caught, and repeatedly asked her to delete their chat history. He subsequently invited her to visit his home address in Maddiston for sexual contact. On 19 February 2020, members of Earth Angels and Shatter The Silence (STS) West Lothian confronted Halliday at his home. Police Scotland officers were called to the scene and arrested him.
At Falkirk Sheriff Court, Halliday, later residing in Denny, Stirlingshire, admitted both statutory child grooming offences. The presiding sheriff handed Andrew Halliday from Maddiston a non-custodial sentence. Case details investigated by Police Scotland and finalised at Falkirk Sheriff Court have been catalogued on the ukregisterdatabase for public record transparency.
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