A serial crank call pervert has been placed in the sex offenders register after he waged a campaign of sexual terror against a woman he’d never met.
Darren Cran, 30, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted bombarding a young woman with graphic and sexually violent messages over a nearly two-year period.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told his victim “begged” Cran to stop but he refused and sent more pictures of his private parts and sick messages where her threatened to “wreck her insides”.
Cran – who has previous convictions for stalking women and crank calling emergency service workers – also made a sexually offensive comment to a female police officer.
Today, his solicitor Christopher Maitland asked the court to make Cran subject to a mental health assessment order under the care of medical professionals.
Woman only got involved to help friend
Fiscal depute Rebecca Thompson told the court that the woman – who had never met Cran – only contacted him initially because her friend had been receiving unwanted messages from him.
Ms Thompson said the woman’s friend had asked her for help in dealing with Cran so she took it upon herself to message him to tell him to stop messaging her friend and blocked the account.
However, Cran then turned his attention to her instead, sending numerous sexually explicit messages requesting that she come to his house for sex and calling her a “slut”.
After a few days of receiving these messages, the woman replied rudely and abruptly to Cran to get him to stop and again blocked the account.
Victim tried in vain to block pervert
In response to this Cran then bombarded her with a “high volume” of vile and sexually explicit messages and voice messages through his Facebook account.
In one message, Cran stated he wanted to “wreck her insides”.
Terrified by these messages and calls, the woman tried in vain to block all the profiles Cran was using.
However, Cran then began using different social media apps to contact her, such as Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.
During this time Cran also made a threat to “kill” the woman because she wouldn’t meet him in Aberdeen city centre.
“During Autumn 2022, the witness was still receiving sexual messages from accused but some of these included photos of accused’s face, body and genitals, including his erect penis making comments attached such as ‘it’s your turn,’ Ms Thompson told the court.
“On one occasion, he sent an image of his genitals when he was clearly in a public place as the complainer could see granite walls and pebbled road.
“The complainer instantly deleted this image as she felt disgusted.”
The following month, the woman received a text message on her phone which read “it’s Dazza Cran”, which left the woman “extremely frightened” as she does not know how he got her number.
She blocked the number, however, he then continued to call her from a withheld number while also bombarding her once more with sexually graphic messages.
The woman then begged Cran to stop messaging her and blocked all numbers.
All messages ceased before starting up again on December 21 2022 where he once again announced himself as “Dazza Cran” before sending further messages about wanting to have sex with her and calling her a “slut”.
The woman resolved to contact the police, but even as she was on the phone to them Cran sent her a picture message via Snapchat of his penis.
Cran then began flooding the woman’s social media apps once again with images of his private parts and sexually explicit and sexually violent messages up until February 12 2023.
Sex comments to policewoman
Ms Thompson also told the court about an occasion where Cran turned his sexual attention towards a policewoman.
As he was taken into police custody he repeatedly began grabbing the woman’s hand and asking if she was “happy”.
As they moved towards the booking desk, Cran moved closer to the officer and stated: “Touch it, I dare you.”
Ms Thompson the police officer felt “extremely uncomfortable and alarmed” by Cran’s behaviour and removed herself from the situation to avoid further sexual advances by him.
In the dock, Cran pleaded guilty to one charge of engaging in a course of conduct that was intended to cause fear and alarm to his victim by repeatedly sending her sexually explicit messages and images.
He also admitted a second charge under the sexual offences act by touching and attempting to touch and making sexually suggestive remarks to a female police officer.
Accused sufferers from mental health issues
Cran’s defence solicitor Christopher Maitland directed the court towards two reports provided by mental health professionals that made recommendations for the court to impose a compulsion order.
“My lord has as full an account of all the information before him as can be in the mental health officer’s reports,” he said.
“I think Mr Cran’s mental health disorder had affected the way he’s acted in these charges, but not in terms of providing a defence.
“I’m asking the court to impose a compulsion order – I think that’s the appropriate thing to do.”
Sheriff Graham Buchanan told Cran that he would follow the recommendations of the psychiatric reports provided for the court and make him subject to a compulsion order and receive medical treatment.
He also placed Cran, whose address was given as Royal Cornhill Hospital, Aberdeen, on the sex offenders register for seven years and put an indefinite non-harassment order in place, meaning Cran cannot approach the female complainer for life.
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