Sex offender spared jail

The sex act happened at Edinburgh's Calton Hill

A sex offender who simulated sex with a traffic cone in an Edinburgh street has escaped a jail term.

On the night of the incident, Ross Watt, 33, from Edinburgh, encouraged a group of teenagers to watch him perform with the cone, at the city's Calton Hill.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday, Watt, who has been a registered sex offender for three years, was ordered to complete a breached probation order.

Sentence was deferred for nine months.

It is difficult to assess whether you constitute a danger to the public or simply a nuisance

Sheriff Mhairi Stephen

His defence argued that his act had been like a piece of Edinburgh Fringe street theatre, but the Sheriff said it amounted to a breach of the peace.

The court heard that Watt had a 10-year history of "freakish" offences, normally involving shoes as his desired sex object.

At the time he carried out his latest act he was on probation for hitting himself in the groin area with a trainer as he stood in the front window of his Edinburgh flat.

Sheriff Mhairi Stephen told Watt: "Sadly this is a serious matter and a breach of a probation order.

"It is clear from background reports that you have a long standing history of behaviour involving sexual fetishes which has given rise to previous offending and indeed this offence.

'Disgusted and embarrassed'

"It is difficult to assess whether you constitute a danger to the public or simply a nuisance.

"The most effective way of measuring and controlling your behaviour and protecting the public is to allow the probation order made in August to continue and defer sentence for nine months."

One witness to the traffic cone sex act told the trial last month: "I was disgusted and embarrassed.

"I wondered if he was going to attack somebody coming down the street next."

The court heard that Watt is undergoing psychiatric counselling at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, in an attempt to stop him re-offending.