Man posed as teen online before raping 14-year-old girl

A child sex offender who posed as a teenage boy on the internet before attacking and raping a 14-year-old girl has been jailed for six years and three months.

Craig Dunsmore, 27, persuaded the teenager to travel to meet him in Edinburgh before carrying out the sex attack on her at his home in the city’s Broomhouse area.

Dunsmore was later to have found indecent images of children on a phone and after obtaining other phones contacted a 13-year-old girl.

A judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: “It is a matter of concern that having been arrested twice you continued to pursue your sexual interest in children.

“The court heard that he had met the rape victim through the internet and told her that he was aged 15 and got her to travel to Edinburgh from her home town.

“During the rape attack on January 19, 2019, he pushed her onto a bed and held her down.

Judge Alison Stirling told him: “She froze thinking she was going to be raped, which is what happened.”

Dunsmore had denied raping the girl during an earlier trial but was found guilty of the offence.

He was also convicted of engaging in sexual activity with the underage girl, including requesting that she take naked photos of herself and send them to him.

He was also convicted of possessing and distributing indecent pictures of children and possessing extreme pornography of explicit and realistic images of rape and non-consensual sex between adults and bestiality.

The cleaner was further convicted of requesting that a 13-year-old girl send him indecent images during communications with her in September 2019, when he had been freed under two bail orders at Edinburgh Sheriff court.

The judge told him during a sentencing hearing that Dunsmore followed via a live link to prison: “Custody is the only appropriate disposal having regard to the serious nature of your offending.”

Defence solicitor advocate John Campbell said Dunsmore realised he would be jailed and had begun to recognise the harm he had caused. He said: “Clearly there is much work to do.”

Mr Campbell said Dunsmore was a first offender who hoped to resume employment on his release from jail. He added: “There is clearly a work ethic there.”

Dunsmore was placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.