Latest Offenders Aberdeenshire

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A Peterhead exhibitionist has been locked up after videos and pictures of him pleasuring himself around Buchan were discovered on his mobile phone.

Rory Kerr first hit the headlines in 2021 when it was revealed he appalled neighbours by spending up to four hours a day carrying out sex acts in his Boddam back garden.

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A "depraved" former prison officer who denied having a sexual attraction to children and instead insisted he abused two young girls for "a sense of danger and excitement" has been jailed for 13 years.

Russell Maitland, 37, admitted a number of offences, including raping and sexually abusing one girl and sexually assaulting a second.

A court heard the first victim was sexually assaulted between the ages of four and 12 and raped between the ages of seven and 11.

The second victim was sexually abused between the ages of four and six.

Judge Summers told Maitland: "The charges to which you have pled guilty include charges involving a horrific catalogue of sexual violence perpetrated against two girls."

The judge said he was concerned with the criminal justice social work report, which noted while Maitland accepted responsibility for the offences, he denied having a sexual attraction to children.

Judge Summers stated: "You suggest these offences were committed because of need for 'a sense of danger and excitement'. That is difficult to accept."

The judge noted that Maitland's abuse of the second girl continued despite the first victim having reported his behaviour to Police Scotland.

He stated Maitland's conduct was for his "own deviant sexual ends".

Judge Summers made reference to the victim impact statements, noting the girls "each struggle on a daily basis" due to Maitland's abuse.

The judge said: "In relation to each of these children your offending was persistent and pervasive.

"It was carried out on a number of occasions over a number of years.

"Your offending was calculated and it was predatory. It was almost unimaginably depraved. It is hard to comprehend the harm that this will have caused."

The offences took place in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, and in Aberdeen.

Maitland was handed a 16-year extended sentence at the High Court in Aberdeen on Tuesday, with 13 years in jail and three years on licence once released back into the community.

He was also added to the sex offenders' register indefinitely and was banned from contacting his victims.

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A serial sex offender is back behind bars after breaching a court order by deleting his call history – to hide his use of legal adult chat lines.

Matthew Taylor started using phone sex lines after growing tired of AI (artificial intelligence) apps to gain sexual gratification.

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A paedophile who was snared by chat logs that showed him asking a teenage boy to send him sexual images has avoided a prison sentence.

Andrew Easton, 39, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted downloading and distributing disturbing indecent images of children to others on the internet.

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A Huntly man has been placed on the sex offenders register after police raided his home and found his device full of indecent images and videos of children.

Christopher Barron, 29, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted having over 400 images and around 40 videos featuring child abuse.

Some of the children featured in the footage were aged as young as four.

Barron also admitted being in possession of a multi-tool knife – that included several blades – when he was taken into police custody at an Aberdeenshire garden centre. 

Fiscal depute Jennifer Pritchard told the court that on April 13 last year Police Scotland received intelligence that indecent images had been uploaded to the internet via the Kik application.

It was linked to a device that that was connected to the internet at Barron’s address.

A search warrant was granted, and police officers attended at Barron’s home in Huntly on May 29 2023 where officers found several devices, including a mobile phone.

The phone, which belonged to Barron, was examined and found to contain many indecent images and videos of children.

Around 132 Category A images and 30 Category A videos, 155 Category B images and 10 videos and 124 images and 9 Category C videos were discovered on the phone.

The children featured, most of whom were girls, were between four and 15 years old.

Ms Pritchard said the total runtime for the videos was more than 36 minutes.

When police arrested Barron on the same morning they had raided his house they found him in possession of a multi-tool knife within his backpack as they placed him in a van.

In the dock, Barron pleaded guilty to one charge of downloading and uploading indecent images of children.

He also admitted being found in possession of a knife.

His solicitor, Mike Monro, called for background reports on his client before sentencing.

Sheriff Andrew Miller deferred sentence on Barron, of West Court, Huntly, for a criminal justice social work report and a restriction of liberty order assessment to be done.

He also made Barron subject to the sex offenders register.

Description

A paedophile jailed for historic sexual abuse dating back to the 1980s has been branded a “vile monster” by the family of one of his victims.

John Ritchie was snared when one young girl recorded the abuse on her mobile phone and alerted police.

That prompted an investigation that saw victims come forward and accuse the 65-year-old of sexually assaulting them when they were children.

Following a trial at Peterhead Sheriff Court, a jury unanimously convicted Ritchie of three charges of sexual assault on two teenagers, one of whom he started abusing in 1989.

He was also found guilty by majority verdict on two charges of sex assaults involving a woman and a teenage girl.

Sheriff Ian Wallace jailed Ritchie for over two years and placed him on the sex offenders register for a decade.

‘He groomed these girls’

Describing Ritchie as a “vile and sick person”, a family member of one of his victims said that she was “disgusted” over the breach of trust shown by him.

“He groomed these girls. He’s a vile sick person – a monster,” the girl’s relative said.

“I’m glad he didn’t plead guilty and took this to trial because now people have seen and heard for themselves what he did.”

One of his victims, in an impact statement to the court, described how Ritchie’s abuse still affects her home and school life.

She wrote: “This has affected my life in a huge way. I take panic attacks on a daily basis … my mood has changed. I am angry I didn’t speak up sooner.

“I am now getting counselling. I can’t eat or sleep and now having to take medication. I feel sad, worried and angry all the time now and I always used to feel happy.

“He has totally ruined the last year of my life and I am not the happy girl I used to be.”

Serial sex abuser

Ritchie, who worked as a joiner, was found guilty by unanimous verdict of sexual offences on one teenage girl between August 25 1989 and August 24 1991 at addresses across Aberdeenshire.

The charge states that he pinned her down on a bed where he climbed on top of her and touched her all over her body, including fondling her breasts.

On another occasion, Ritchie climbed on top of the girl while in a car and again sexually assaulted her by touching her with his hands.

At a different address, Ritchie was also unanimously convicted of indecent assault involving the same girl between 1994 and 1994 when she was an older teenager.

It was stated that he pinned her against a wall and grabbed at her breasts and tried to force his hands inside her underwear.

Ritchie was found guilty on a charge involving a second teenage girl whom he indecently assaulted at a pub, near Fraserburgh, by kissing her and grabbing at her breasts and buttocks.

He was also found guilty by majority verdict by the jury on a charge that he sexually assaulted a woman at a hotel in Rosehearty between 2012 and 2013.

The jury unanimously convicted Ritchie of a final charge of sex offences involving a third teenage girl that took place last year at addresses in Aberdeenshire and East Lothian.

He touched the girl’s body and touched her private parts before unfastening his belt and beckoning her to come into his bedroom.

He was additionally handed a not proven verdict on one charge of kissing a woman without her consent.

At Ritchie’s sentence hearing at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, Sheriff Wallace sentenced Ritchie, of Muirison Drive, Rosehearty, to 28 months in prison.

He also placed Ritchie on the sex offender’s register for 10 years.

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A vile Peterhead man has been found guilty of repeatedly raping his unconscious wife while she was on strong medication to help her sleep.

John Lindsay raped the mother of his children on various occasions at their Portlethen home while she was in a deep sleep and would not wake up.

Michelle Newman, who has waived her right to anonymity, began to suspect what was happening and the 38-year-old then confronted him.

But the brazen sex offender lied and claimed that nothing had happened.

Lindsay, 39, denied a charge of rape but a jury found him guilty after hearing disturbing evidence during a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen this week.

‘He’s behind bars, I’m going to be safe’

After the court case, Ms Newman bravely waived her right to anonymity to speak about her horrific ordeal with The Press and Journal.

When she heard that Lindsay had been found guilty, Ms Newman broke down in tears of relief, following a decade-long wait for justice.

“I didn’t expect a guilty verdict,” she said. “I’m over the moon. I just didn’t feel like I was believed. He gave me 10 years of hell since this all kicked off.

“Now I know he’s behind bars, I know I’m going to be safe again.”

Giving evidence during the trial, Ms Newman told advocate depute John Keenan she had been on various prescribed medications that made her “very sleepy” and feel “like a zombie” at the time.

Asked how deeply she would sleep, she replied: “I was unconscious. I wouldn’t wake up”.

She told the court, in harrowing detail, how she woke up one morning and found evidence that Lindsay had sex with her during the night while she was asleep.

She immediately phoned her husband and challenged him about it but he denied anything had happened.

Ms Newman described confiding in her dad about what had happened and how she felt “broken, very anxious, scared”.

Victim recorded attacker’s confession

Her father bought her a onesie which she then wore to bed every night, but would wake up to find the zip undone and the onesie partially or even fully off.

But Ms Newman still had doubts about what was happening and wanted to make absolutely certain.

One night, she deliberately didn’t take her medication and pretended to be asleep.

A tearful Ms Newman then described feeling Lindsay remove her onesie and start to rape her.

She said: “I jumped up and ran downstairs. I was very upset, confused and scared”.

Years later, Ms Newman managed to record Lindsay admitting that he’d raped her.

Eventually, with the help of her new partner, Ms Newman built up the courage to report the matter to the police.

‘A custodial sentence is a certainty’

Jurors took just over two-and-a-half hours to convict Lindsay, by a majority, of raping Ms Newman between October 2012 and March 2013.

He raped the woman while she was asleep and incapable of giving or withholding consent.

After the verdict was returned, Judge Summers told Lindsay: “You have been convicted of a very grave offence.

“You will understand, given the gravity of the offence, that, in due course, the imposition of a custodial sentence is a certainty.”

The judge deferred sentence on Lindsay until next month for reports and remanded him in custody in the meantime.

Lindsay, whose address had been given as Duthie Gardens, Peterhead, will be sentenced next month.

He has been placed on the sex offenders register in the meantime.

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An Aberdeenshire paedophile was caught with even more child abuse images while still waiting to be sentenced for the first haul.

Daniel McGladrigan already had a previous conviction from 2021 after being found in possession of 600 indecent images of children and nine hours of sickening footage hidden in encrypted files.

The 22-year-old’s first offence led to him being monitored by the sexual offender policing unit.

When it carried out an unannounced home visit in January last year, officers analysed a tablet device and discovered indecent images of young girls aged between 12 and 15.

McGladrigan appeared in the dock on Monday to be sentenced for an additional charge of possessing 48 indecent images.

Fiscal depute Carol Gammie told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that two detectives visited McGladrigan at 10.15am on January 22 2022.

They were given consent to examine several devices.

Ms Gammie said: “An electronic tablet device belonging to the accused was manually examined by the officers and was found to contain what was suspected to be indecent images of children within the ‘recycle bin’ of his Google Images application”.

The tablet was seized and forensically examined and found to contain 47 Category C images and one Category A image, the most serious.

The images were no longer accessible to be viewed by McGladrigan and could not be accurately dated.

‘Large number of visits’ to website

However, they were created at some point between the purchase of the tablet on January 10 2020 and its seizure on January 22 2022.

Further analysis found that in a two-week period between May and June 2021, the device was used to make a “large number of visits to a website known to host indecent images of children”.

Numerous webpages with names indicative of child sexual abuse and exploitation had also been accessed.

McGladrigan pleaded guilty to taking, permitting to be taken or making indecent images or pseudo-images of children.

Accused ‘under no illusions’ about second crime

Defence agent Stuart Beveridge told the court: “He is under no illusions as this is his second offence for this sort of behaviour and the court will consider all options, including a custodial sentence.

“But he is a young man who accepts he has made a mistake and his position is that this happened back in 2021 whilst he was 20 years of age.

“He’s currently working with the social work department and that is going well, so, if he is given the chance for that to continue, then perhaps that could stop his offending behaviour.

“Mr McGladrigan is obviously concerned about adverse publicity from today’s hearing.”

‘Very reckless’

Sheriff Philip Mann told McGladrigan: “I think you’re right to be concerned about being sent to custody.

“Once is bad enough, but committing the same offence whilst you’re waiting on the sentence for your first offence is very reckless.

“The only things that stop me from sentencing you to a custodial sentence are that you are 22 and have not reached full maturity and that you a cooperating well with the social work department.”

As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Mann sentenced McGladrigan to a community payback order with supervision for three years and ordered him to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.

He also fined McGladrigan, of Greeness in Cuminestown, a total of £1,000 and placed him on the sex offenders register for five years.

The sheriff also ordered McGladrigan to take part in a sex offender rehabilitation programme.

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A mum realised her partner was a “high-risk” paedophile after Googling his name and finding a Press and Journal story about his past crimes.

Troy Sutherland was placed on the sex offender’s register for indefinitely and jailed for 39 months in 2017 after blackmailing children to send him nude pictures.

The 27-year-old was also banned from having contact with females under 16.

But in 2021, Sutherland began a relationship with an adult woman in Aberdeenshire with a young daughter, without disclosing that he is a sex offender.

It was only when the woman decided to Google his name in search of information about a separate court case that she learned the horrifying truth.

Fiscal depute Rebecca Thompson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court Sutherland is classed a “high-risk registered sex offender” and was subject to regular unannounced home visits from police.

She said that during the course of Sutherland’s brief relationship with the woman, he had chatted to her seven-year-old daughter without trying to get up or move away.

He even asked the woman if she “liked the fact that he was good with children” and offered to mind her kids for her.

On one occasion, Sutherland knocked on her door and explained he was “going to jail for punching someone”.

Sutherland branded woman ‘blobby’

He was invited in and spoke to the young girl about her iPad games before staying the night.

The next day, he was asked to babysit the girl and her older brother for around an hour while their mother went to the gym.

A few days later, due to Sutherland’s comment about going to jail for punching someone, the woman decided to look at online court lists.

Ms Thompson told the court: “On Googling his name she found a news report in relation to his sexual offending and that he had offended against females aged under 16.

“She was concerned that the accused had contact with her daughter and contacted the police.”

Sutherland was traced and arrested.

In a separate incident also in 2021, Sutherland began speaking to an adult woman on a dating website.

After speaking for around two weeks they met and had consensual sex on August 14.

Ms Thompson said: “The following morning, when the complainer advised the accused that she did not wish to be in a relationship with him, he became angry and upset.

“At some point during the afternoon, the complainer was outside her address with
the accused when she again told him she did not wish to be in a relationship with
him.

“He ran towards her and began shouting in her face calling her a ‘slag’.”

Sutherland then left but began messaging the woman, including an image of “an obese naked female” performing a sex act.

The message included the text: “S*** posting online again.”

Ms Thompson said: “The complainer believed the accused was calling her fat and mocking her.

‘It was essentially to be nasty’

“The accused continued to message her including a message calling her ‘blobby’ and laughing at her stomach.”

The woman blocked him and later reported the matter to police, stating Sutherland’s actions made her feel “extremely uncomfortable, unsafe and fearful of him”.

The messages had been sent via iMessage, indicating Sutherland had been using an iPhone.

Officers from the Sex Offender Policing Unit visited his home and requested he hand over his phone to be examined.

Sutherland refused, in breach of his Sexual Offences Prevention Order, before later handing over a Samsung device.

He was arrested and taken to Fraserburgh police station.

Sutherland, of Ware Road, Peterhead, pled guilty to sending the woman sexual communications for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification or of humiliating, distressing or alarming her.

He also admitted breaching the terms of his Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) by being in contact with the young girl and refusing to hand over his phone to be examined by police.

Defence agent Grant Daglish argued the offences, while “serious”, were at the “lower end of the spectrum”.

‘Traumatic upbringing’

He said Sutherland gave his explanation for the offences in a social work report that was not made public.

Mr Daglish added his client had behaved “childishly and immaturely”.

The solicitor, regarding the offence of being in contact with the child, said: “There was nothing more sinister than he was simply trying to enter a relationship with the woman.”

Regarding the sexual message sent to the other woman, he said: “It was essentially to be nasty to the complainer. Sexual gratification was not the motivation behind the messages.”

He went on to explain Sutherland had a “traumatic upbringing”.

Sheriff Ian Wallace, regarding the sexual message sent to the woman, handed Sutherland three years of supervision and 200 hours of unpaid work.

He also ordered him to complete the Moving Forward Making Changes programme, as well as various conduct requirements.

The sheriff deferred sentence on the SOPO breaches until April for further reports.

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A Fraserburgh man caught with child sex abuse material involving toddlers told a decoy 13-year-old girl that “age is just a number”.

Michael Marnoch, 30, was snared by paedophile hunters and when police arrived to search his home they found a selection of indecent images of children and videos featuring a girl aged between two and three.

It was also discovered that Marnoch had entered the search terms “incest”, “pre-teens” and “babies”.

Marnoch – who initially tried to claim the phone seized by police belonged to his mother – admitted later that the phone was his.

Fiscal depute Lucy Simpson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that a member of an online paedophile hunter group was operating a 13-year-old decoy on September 7 when she was messaged on Facebook by a user called ‘Amy Stephen’, which was operated by Marnoch.

‘Age is just a number’

Marnoch immediately sent a picture of a woman exposing her breasts, claiming this was a picture of herself and attempted to encourage ‘Adele’ to do likewise.

“When ‘Adele’ told the accused that she was only 13-years-old, the accused replied, ‘Age is just a number’,” Ms Simpson said.

“The accused thereafter added ‘Adele’ to a Facebook Messenger group chat where a number of sexualised messages, images and videos were being shared.

“The adult operating the decoy account for ‘Adele’ continued to receive messages from the accused over the next few days.

“He messaged her stating ‘dam your beautiful’, ‘bet you have nice boobs’ followed by ‘let’s see’.”

On September 12 the operator of the decoy account halted all communication with Marnoch and contacted the police.

Police found illegal material on phone

Officers executed a search warrant at Marnoch’s home and seized a mobile phone, which he initially told them was his mother’s.

He also claimed the phone had a PIN number but refused to give the code.

Cybercrime analysts carried out a forensic examination, cracked the PIN code and were able to prove that Marncoh was the user of the device.

Marnoch pleaded guilty to one charge of downloading indecent images of children.

He also admitted a second charge of communicating with a child for sexual gratification, who he believed to be under 16.

‘You did think you were communicating with a girl of 13’

Defence agent Sam Milligan told the court that Marnoch did have previous convictions but not for anything “relevant or analogous” to these offences.

“He has had a fairly turbulent upbringing and Mr Marnoch has a distinct lack of social skills,” Mr Milligan said.

“His attitude to the offending in the social work report was less than candid, but this is not uncommon.”

Sheriff Andrew Miller told Marnoch that he had pleaded guilty to “serious offences involving multiple possession of indecent images of children”.

“The serious nature of your conduct comes from the fact that you did think you were communicating with a girl of 13 years of age,” he added.

As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Andrew Miller sentenced Marnoch to a community payback order with supervision for three years and ordered him to carry out 225 hours of unpaid work.

The sheriff also placed Marnoch, of Alexandra Terrace, Fraserburgh, on the sex offender’s register for three years.

Description

An oil and gas worker has been placed on the sex offender’s register after he was caught with thousands of child sex abuse images.

Andrew Smith’s house was raided by police who found more than 3,500 images and hours of video footage across his electronic devices.

When officers arrived at the 53-year-old’s Banchory home he told them: “I’ve downloaded stuff I shouldn’t have.”

Police discovered images of children as young as one and video footage totalling nearly 16 hours.

Smith, who had been downloading the images for over 14 years, told the arresting officers: “It’s a disgusting thing. I don’t even know why I do it.”

‘Sorry for giving everyone the hassle’

Fiscal depute Lucy Simpson told the court that a search warrant for Smith’s Banchory home was executed on November 16 2021.

Smith allowed them entry and as he was cautioned he stated: “I’ve downloaded stuff I shouldn’t have. I’m more into downloading than viewing stuff. I shan’t be doing that anymore, obviously.”

“A systematic search of the locus was thereafter conducted,” Ms Simpson said.

“During this search, a computer tower and a hard drive were recovered and the accused identified these items as belonging to him – he also provided the passcode for the computer tower.

“Initial examination of these devices revealed indecent images of children and the items were seized by police.”

In reply to caution and arrest, Smith stated: “Sorry for giving everyone the hassle and it’s a disgusting thing. I don’t even know why I do it.”

Smith’s computer tower was found to contain 174 videos of male and female children between one and 14 years of age.

The combined video runtime of these videos was 15 hours and 50 minutes.

A total of 3,515 images of children aged between three and 14 were found on both Smith’s computer tower and hard drive.

Two of those were Category A, two were Category B, while the remaining 3,511 were considered Category C.

Smith pleaded guilty to one charge of taking or permitting to be taken or making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children between August 31 2007 and November 16 2021.

He admitted a further charge of being in possession of indecent images of children.

He must now ‘reflect on his demons’

Defence agent Lynn Bentley told the court that her client had no previous convictions and was in full-time employment.

She added: “He knows that his conduct is entirely unacceptable and he regrets having become involved in that.

“The images were entirely for his own use and there’s no evidence of him sharing them.”

Ms Bentley told the court Smith was aware he must now “reflect on his demons”.

Sheriff Andrew Miller told Smith: “You have pleaded guilty to very serious offences.

“I am constantly reminded that anyone who downloads images of this kind of child sexual abuse contributes to the worldwide demand for these images – that outlines why these offences are so serious.”

As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Miller placed Smith on a community payback order with supervision and ordered him to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work.

He also placed Smith, of Banchory, on the sex offender’s register for three years.

Description

A sex offender breached a court order when he befriended a mum at a foodbank and posed for a selfie with her 11-year-old daughter.

David Scott, known as Ritchie, previously admitted to asking underage teenagers to send him naked pictures and served two years in prison following the offence in 2017.

He’d sent two 13-year-old schoolgirls sexually explicit pictures of himself through Snapchat and repeatedly demanded naked images in return.

The 25-year-old was then placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years and ordered not to communicate with anyone under the age of 16 for five years.

But Ritchie landed back in the dock after breaching the Sex Offences Prevention Order by being friendly with an 11-year-old girl who he met at an Aberdeenshire foodbank.

‘Laughing and joking’

Fiscal depute Ruaridh McAllister told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that Ritchie had met the girl’s mum while volunteering at the foodbank between June and August this year.

He was in the company of the woman and her daughter, aged 11, on various occasions but failed to tell them about his conviction or the court order still in place.

The fiscal said the woman saw Ritchie “making cups of tea and coffee for people” along with two children at a social event.

“She saw how they were all getting on well and laughing and joking”, he said. “During this occasion, the accused also sat at a table with them and chatted.”

Met young girl for ice cream

A matter of weeks later, Ritchie was invited to join one of the women from the foodbank at an ice cream parlour.

He agreed to join them, despite knowing that her daughter and another 11-year-old child would be there. Ritchie posed for a selfie there too, the court was told.

The same month, Ritchie accepted an offer of help with moving home from the 11-year-old girl’s mum who picked him up in her car with her daughter.

He also chatted with the same mother and daughter at a bus stop the same month.

“On August 20 2022 police officers carried out a home visit with the accused”, the fiscal added. “During this visit, several new ‘contacts’ were identified from a check of his mobile telephone.”

Two of these were the two ladies from the centre and he advised officers that he was “friendly with them both” but hadn’t told them about his Sex Offenders Prevention Order.

When a police officer later told Ritchie he must tell the 11-year-old’s mum about his order he “reluctantly agreed”.

But when officers checked in with the lady two days later he had failed to come clean to her.

“She told the officers the accused did speak to her the night before but she made it clear he did not disclose his conditions to her”, Mr McAllister explained.

“She was unaware he was prohibited from communicating with anyone under the age of 16.

“She appeared angry and upset about this and said that, if the accused had notified her of the Sex Offenders Prevention Order, she would have not allowed him anywhere near her daughter.”

‘A lovely individual’

Defence agent Leonard Burkinshaw represented Ritchie, who has been remanded in custody since August, and told the court his client “is a lovely individual”.

He appeared in the dock after being transported from HMP Grampian prison in Peterhead and admitted breaching his Sex Offences Prevention Order.

Mr Burkinshaw said Ritchie “finds it very difficult to make friends at all” and hasn’t been able to secure work because of his conviction.

“He is a lovely individual and this welfare centre was a place where he could volunteer”, the solicitor said.

“This welfare centre operates as a food bank and he was using its services. The manager there was made aware of his conditions.

“He was allowed to enter and to assist them by handing out teas and coffee to people there.

“The lady involved volunteers there as well and he accepts that he didn’t specifically tell her of his conditions. However, the manager was aware.

“He accepts it’s his obligation to tell each and every person.”

‘Paid a price’

Mr Burkinshaw added that Ritchie was never alone with the woman’s daughter or any other child under the age of 16.

“Albeit he didn’t inform them of the conditions, and that was important to do, he has paid a price for that.

“It was a friendship that he was clinging to. That has been difficult for him in the past and it will be going forward for him too.”

The defence lawyer accepted that jail was inevitable for his client but suggested it was “not the most heinous breach”.

Sheriff Morag McLaughlin noted it was not the first time that Ritchie had breached his order and so a period of imprisonment was inevitable.

She jailed Ritchie, already a prisoner at HMP Grampian, for 12 months.

But the sentence was backdated to his remand date of August 2022.

Description

An Aberdeenshire man who chatted with what he believed were five underage girls has been added to the sex offenders register.

Michael Burr was caught out by vigilante paedophile hunters who posed as young teenagers on fake Facebook accounts.

The 57-year-old sent them indecent images of himself, asked the ‘young girls’ to share pictures of their bodies, and to keep conversations a “secret”.

But after the vigilantes confronted Burr at his home, he later landed in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court in September this year.

Burr, who was previously married with children, admitted communicating with decoys that were created to snare sex offenders who were looking to chat with children online.

Fiscal depute Carol Gammie told the court that Burr sexually communicated with the fake profiles from an address in Inverurie, between September 5-23 last year

She said that photographs used on the accounts were “clearly” of girls aged under 16.

On September 5 last year, Burr approached a decoy called ‘Cassie’ who identified herself as 13 and he immediately asked: “You are a young girl, do you want to chat to an old man?”

Then he asked the girl to send naked pictures of her body and sent her an image of his private parts.

‘Would you join me in the shower?’

On September 10, Burr, who claimed to be an oil and gas worker, started chatting with a second 14-year-old decoy called ‘Penny Louise’.

He also asked her for pictures, saying: “Would you like to share your body?”

Then he forwarded an image of his own private parts.

Four days later, Burr started a conversation with a third decoy called ‘Sky’ and stated: “Do you like chatting to older men?”

He also asked the girl if she was “going through puberty” and requested a picture of her in her pyjamas.

On September 16, Burr messaged a fourth girl called ‘Bethany’, who he thought was 14, and asked: “Would you join me in the shower? You could wash me and I could wash you?”

Then he asked for a naked photo and sent her an indecent one of himself.

Between September 15-23, Burr chatted to a fifth girl called ‘Stacey’.

He told the 14-year-old, “I like to look at girls” and that he would like to see pictures of her in the shower and the bath.

Once again, Burr sent an image of his private parts.

‘Great difficulty admitting guilt’

On September 27 2022, the paedophile hunter group confronted Burr at his home and contacted the police.

During previous court proceedings, Burr pleaded guilty to five charges of sending sexual communications to what he believed to be girls under the age of 16 for sexual gratification.

His defence solicitor Graham Morrison told the court that his client initially had “great difficulty admitting his guilt” due to the nature of the offences.

“Before this, he was married with children”, he said.

“But there was clearly something amiss and he became depressed and lonely. That’s how this offence has occurred.

“His expressions of remorse and regret over his actions are genuine.”

Sheriff Morag McLaughlin told Burr that she considered it “best” that he joins a sexual offenders rehabilitation programme.

“You’re a 57-year-old man who appears before the court for something which is very serious”, she said.

“You need to do that programme if your risk is to be reduced.”

As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff McLaughlin ordered Burr to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work as part of a three-year community payback order with supervision.

She also ordered Burr, of Lumphanan, to participate in a sex offenders treatment programme and placed him on the sex offenders register for three years.