Dalkeith paedophile targeted children online in the Philippines

Liam Nolan (31) from Dalkeith, contacted the young lad and engaged in “highly sexualised chat” and “exchanged sexual images” with the boy. Nolan, who worked as a call operator for Scottish Widows at the time, then discussed abusing the boy’s six-year-old brother “whilst he was in the bath” during the sordid chats.

The pervert demanded the child take naked pictures of his brother despite the youngster saying he did not want to.

Nolan also chatted to a Filipino adult asking if he could “have your 12-year-old especially if she’s never been touched before”.

The horrific chat log also revealed Nolan had asked the man “at some point it might be fun to have her take a pill and use her asleep”.

Nolan, who has recently moved from Dalkeith to Hawick, was found to have been in touch with a total of 20 vulnerable children in a bid to satisfy his sick fantasies.

The offences were uncovered when police officers raided his former home in Dalkeith in December 2019 after receiving information an indecent image of a child had been uploaded to the internet from the address.

And when police confronted him Nolan told the officers “Can I just say it’s not my dad’s, it’s mine. The images are on my phone and my computer”.

Details of the catalogue of offences were read out at Edinburgh Sheriff Court where Nolan last week pleaded guilty to four charges.

Sheriff Robert Fife said: “The content is very disturbing, but you will know that anyway. The manipulation and instructions you gave in the extract before the court is of grave concern.

“I do take into account you have had mental health difficulties but it is important we have the benefit of reports and I need the reports before deciding the appropriate sentence. All options will be open to the court at that time.”

Sheriff Fife placed Nolan on the Sex Offenders’ Register, deferred sentence to next month and released him on bail.

Prosecutor Rosie Cook read a lengthy narration to the court detailing the disturbing details of Nolan’s offending over a near eight year period. The fiscal said the pervert had downloaded a total of 2836 indecent images of children - including 760 Category A - to a variety of devices found at his home.

File names on the devices included horrific titles for the abuse of young girls aged just 13. Two mobile phones were also found to have evidence of “sexualised conversations” with several children he had contacted online.

He paid one 12-year-old girl to send him sick images and videos of herself and asked the child “if she wants to be molested or raped”.

Police found evidence of online chat logs between Nolan and a total of 20 children, both male and female, with most of the content unsuitable to be printed.

Nolan pleaded guilty to sending and receiving sexual images and sending sexual written communication to children between October 15, 2014 and November 13, 2019.

He also admitted to possessing and taking, or permitting to be taken, indecent images of children between January 27, 2012 and December 18, 2019.