Fife soldier faces jail after threats to woman
A soldier who sent a string of rape threats to a woman via dating app Tinder is facing jail.
Nathan Brown admitted sending a series of explicit, "extremely sexual" messages through the app.
Brown, who is based at the former RAF base in Leuchars, Fife, had previously spoken to the woman on Tinder.
Then, on December 9 last year, he sent her the string of messages in the early hours of the morning.
She woke up to find "serious and graphic" threats and called in police.
Fiscal depute Joanne Smith told Dundee Sheriff Court "She became uncomfortable with the content and nature of his messages, in particular on December 9 when she woke up to a number of messages sent by him. The messages caused her alarm. At 4.27am she received a message which was extremely sexual in nature and then received a further two messages of a similar nature at 7.52am and 7.59am. She replied at 8am which aggravated the accused and he replied with a further message of a sexual nature at 8.15am."
An hour later Brown sent a further message apologising for his earlier comments – wishing the woman good luck over "what she is hoping to find on Tinder".
The woman contacted police and Brown was traced and interviewed.
Brown admitted making the comments and said he had got drunk the night before.
He told officers he had anger issues which he wanted help for and described the incident as a cry for help.
Brown, 23, pleaded guilty on summary complaint to engaging in a course of conduct which caused a woman fear and alarm by contacting her by telephone and repeatedly sending her messages of a threatening and sexual nature, on December 9 last year, at an address in north-east Fife.
Solicitor William Boyle, defending, said: "The army take a pretty rigid approach to this. He has his commanding officer here today and he has told me that if he was sentenced to around 100 hours unpaid work he won't get dismissed from the service. If he is at liberty they will offer him support. But I and they do not want to try to bargain with the court."
Sheriff Alastair Brown deferred sentence until next month for social work background reports and placed Brown on the sex offenders register meantime.
He said: "The messages which you sent make extremely serious and graphic threats of conduct which amounts to threats of rape. They are an extremely serious matter - they contemplate sexual violence. It is entirely unacceptable that anyone should be subjected to this kind of communication. There can be no question of a community payback order of around 100 hours - it's too serious for that. Right now the reports I have only allow me to send you to jail - I need more information on the options available."