Former sailor jailed over relationship with boy, 15

Published on Wednesday 26 March 2008 09:16

A FORMER Royal Navy serviceman who started a relationship with a 15-year-old boy he met through a gay website has been jailed.

Thomas Marshall, 60, made contact with the boy through the networking site Gaydar and they arranged to meet in Cammo Park.

In June 2007, the boy's mother found photographs of her son naked from the waist down on his mobile phone and images of a naked man she suspected was about 50 years old.

When interviewed by police, her son admitted making contact with men through a gay website. He said he had registered on the site as being 18.

Marshall, of Oven Wynd, Kelso, pleaded guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in February this year to committing acts of gross indecency with a 15-year-old boy on various occasions between May 1 and June 11 last year.

He also admitted committing the acts in a public place and breaching a bail condition imposed at Peebles Sheriff Court in November 2006 after he pleaded guilty to three charges relating to possession and distribution of indecent pictures of children.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court today he was sentenced to a five-year extended sentence, two of which he will serve in prison, for the child pornography charges.

He was handed a further 12 months – to be served consecutively – for acts of gross indecency with a person under 16, carrying out a sex act not in private and a bail aggravation.