A CABERET singer from Clacks who even crooned at a bash organised by one of Prince Charles's charities was unmasked by his co-star after sending sexual messages to children on Facebook.

Darren Whyte, from Tillicoultry, used the social networking site to strike up inappropriate conversations with seven young girls, aged 13 to 15, and one 15-year-old boy.

He sent two of his girl victims pictures of naked male genitals, told a 14-year-old girl he would like to perform a sexual act on her, and told another girl about a sexual dream.

Whyte boasted then sent the 15-year-old boy messages, and then suggested "some kind of sexual practice between them".

Graham McLachlan, prosecuting, told Falkirk Sheriff Court on Tuesday the offences took place over a six month period, between August 16, 2014, and February 7 last year.

The depute fiscal said the matter came to light when another singer who performed with Whyte stumbled on the chats on Facebook.

He said: "They were both singers performing at venues and the friend had access to the accused's Facebook to allow them to advertise engagements and suchlike.

"During the course of this the friend became aware of certain contact that the accused had with people under 16, and noticed some of this was a sexual nature."

Mr McLachlan said Whyte's friend confronted Whyte who said he had been suffering from "anxiety".

He did not immediately go to the police -- but took action once he saw on Facebook that Whyte's behaviour was continuing.

Mr McLachlan said: "He downloaded from the account a large amount of information onto a disc, and reported the matter to the police.

Officers analysed "chat logs" from the disc and found that Whyte had been taking part in a series of sexualised online conversations with teenage girls and with the teenage boy.

Whyte, of High Street, was arrested, and gave a "no comment" interview.

He later pleaded guilty to six charges of intentionally sending written sexual communications to children, and two counts of sending sexual images to children.

The offences were committed while he was living in The Wynd, Alva.

Sheriff John Mundy deferred sentence until next month for the completion of criminal justice social work reports.

In the meantime, Whyte was placed on the sex offenders' register on an interim basis.