Paedophile kids’ club worker snared at Edinburgh school gate


AN after school club worker who sent pictures of his penis to an online paedophile group decoy was caught outside the school he worked at.
Evan Tomney was working as a play assistant at Blackhall Primary when he made contact with an online account he believed to be owned by a teenager called Ben Holmes.
Tomney chatted to the “boy” on the dating app Skout before making filthy comments about sex and then asking if the lad had measured his privates.
The conversation then switched to WhatsApp where 21-year-old Tomney sent the boy several images of his penis.
But the online account in the name of Ben Holmes had been set up by a member of the paedophile group Groom Resisters Scotland.
The self-styled “child protection enforcement group” then confronted Tomney about his conduct outside Blackhall ?Primary during a sting operation in May this year.
Police were called in to deal with the situation and the online group handed over all the messages that had been sent to the decoy by the pervert.
Tomney pleaded guilty to intentionally sending written communication and sexual images to a person he believed to be 14-year-old boy Ben Holmes for the purposes of ?obtaining sexual gratification at his home address between May 6 and 13 this year when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.
He returned to court for sentencing yesterday where Sheriff Frank Crowe said: “Fortunately no young person was affected by this and you were effectively sucked into the trap.”
Sheriff Crowe placed Tomney on the sex offenders a register for 18 months and also placed him on a supervision order for the same length of time.
Tomney will also have to declare all internet devices to the authorities and allow them to inspect the devices on request.
Previously the court heard a member of Groom Resisters Scotland had set up the online Skout account in May this year and soon began receiving messages from Tomney.
Tomney, of Edinburgh, was said to have told the boy “you’re cute” and was told he was just 14-years-old when he asked his age.
Tomney told the boy he had been caught engaging in a sexual act with another boy while he was at school before asking if the lad “had measured” his penis.
Tomney then sent a message “I think about sex all the time – I am always horny” before asking the boy to “trade pictures” of their privates. The fiscal then said Tomney began sending images of his penis to the boy.
Tomney was then confronted outside the Edinburgh school where he worked by members of the online group with the confrontation live streamed on the group’s Facebook page.
The court was told Tomney was immediately sacked from his position with the after school group and that his mother who also worked there had also “lost her employment”.