Latest Offenders Ayrshire

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A fireman used social media to groom young girls across the UK and threatened to publish indecent images of them online.

Lewis MacLeod, 24, bombarded the teenagers with messages and live video calls, pressuring them over a three-year period to keep sending obscene pictures and footage to satisfy his perversions.

He was jailed after admitting the offences at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court and has been removed from his role in the fire service. 

 MacLeod, described as a high-risk sex offender, used the Snapchat platform to target his 15-year-old victims and show them pornography before begging them to carry out sex acts on themselves.

He threatened two of the girls that he would disclose the images and videos they sent him unless they supplied him with more.

A third victim was forced to strip and perform an indecent act after MacLeod vowed to expose her on social media unless she allowed him to access the private area of her Snapchat account.

MacLeod, of Kilbirnie, Ayrshire, who changed his online profile when the girls tried to block him, was exposed after his victims gave statements to the police and officers seized his phone and electronic devices.

 He admitted six charges under the Sexual Offences and Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm Acts, carried out between April 2018 and February 2021.

Gordon Ghee, defending, told Kilmarnock Sheriff Court MacLeod “was taken from mainstream education due to his parents’ religious views and was home-schooled – he experienced substantial isolation from social situations and his peers”.

Sheriff Alistair Watson said the victims could never be certain if images of them would reappear.

He said he would have sentenced MacLeod to three years but, due to his age and background, would restrict it to 14 months. He also placed him on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

Detective Sergeant Andrew Dunlop of Police Scotland said: “MacLeod used social media to befriend and groom girls throughout the UK. He will rightly face the consequences of his actions and a lengthy period in prison.” 

Description

A sex offender has been spared jail after he was caught with videos of toddlers being raped and people having sex with dogs and horses.

Zacharia Al-Kindy was caught with the illegal films and pictures, which showed girls as young as two being abused, at the home he shares with his mum.

The 28-year-old's sickening haul was kept in the 'Downloads' folder of his laptop, which he kept in his bedroom.

His lawyer claimed he began seeking out the abuse material while dealing with the deaths of his dad and a sibling.

The details emerged yesterday when Al-Kindy, of Darvel, East Ayrshire, appeared in the dock at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court to be sentenced.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to charges of possessing indecent images of children and being in possession of "extreme pornographic" images.

Prosecutor Meghan Glancey told the court that officers from Police Scotland obtained a search warrant for Al-Kindy's home.

On January 19, 2021, they attended his home and were granted entry by his mum, while he was not in.

A search revealed 123 indecent images of children on his laptop, 84 of which were the most extreme there is.

She told Sheriff George Jamieson that the images had been downloaded between August 12, 2020, and January 16, 2021, and that his stash even included a 33-minute-long video.

He also had 6 extreme porn images showing adults engaged in sex acts with dogs and horses.

Defence solicitor advocate Simon Brown said Al-Kindy, who is known as Zach, had fully complied with social workers interviewing him ahead of sentencing.

The lawyer said: "He has insight into his offending.

"He had a very difficult upbringing, suffering the death of his father and a sibling within a very short period of time and had a significant impact upon him.

"He kept himself to himself and was isolated, and that seems to have been the beginning of the rabbit hole he went down which resulted in this behaviour."

Sheriff Jamieson slammed Al-Kindy, saying people who access indecent images of children are giving a reason for the abuse to continue.

He then placed him on the Sex Offenders' Register and a Community Payback Order for the next three years.

He was told to attend the Moving Forward, Making Changes Programme, which helps sex offenders change their ways, and banned him from having any unsupervised conduct with anyone under the age of 16.

He also told him he was only allowed to own one mobile phone and one laptop and has to surrender them to social workers and the police to check, when asked.

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A FORMER teacher has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of child abuse.

Peter Toner, 61, was found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow of sexually abusing five children between 1979 and 1983 when he was a house master at the former St Columba’s College in Largs, Ayrshire.

Officers from Ayrshire’s Divisional Rape Investigation Unit have been conducting enquiries after receiving a complaint in October 2016.

As a result of ongoing enquiries, officers identified other victims.

Detective constable Colin Jones said: “Peter Toner took advantage of his position of authority and committed these despicable crimes.

“It takes considerable courage for people to come forward and speak to the police about such crimes and I would like to pay tribute to the victims for their bravery.

“This sentence may give them some sense of justice, but it won’t undo the harm they have experienced which has been profound and long lasting.

“I would encourage anyone who has been a victim of any sexual predator to come forward as it is never too late to report sexual abuse to us, no matter when it happened and no matter what the circumstances, they can be assured that they will receive every support from Police Scotland.”

Description

An Ardrossan man is facing jail for grooming what he thought was a 12-year-old girl after being stung by an online group targeting paedophiles. Garry Allmark, 46, was brought to justice with the help of a group known as the Scotland Anti Predator Alliance (SAPA). Operatives from the group snared Allmark online while he was living at a flat in Glasgow Street with his wife and eight-year-old son. They then arranged to meet him and confronted him over the vile messages he had sent to one of their decoys during a meeting at Harvie's. As well as sending a picture of a male penis, Allmark sent what he thought was a youngster pictures of women performing sex acts on themselves. He sent the 'child' so many messages SAPA operatives gave police 410 pages of print outs showing his texts. The details emerged this week when Allmark, who now lives in Burns Street, Irvine, appeared in the dock at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court for a pre-trial hearing. He struck a deal with prosecutors which saw him pleading guilty to one charge in exchange for another being dropped. He admitted a charge under Section 23 and 24(1) of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 by attempting to have sexual communication with a young child, and sending sexual pictures and videos to what he thought was an underage girl. The charge that was dropped stated he had tried to meet what he thought was an underage girl with the intention of having a sexual encounter with her. Procurator Fiscal Depute Jo Cunningham explained: "Between March 30, 2018, and May 5, 2018, the accused had been in communication with a person whom he assumed was a child under the age of 13. "The communication he had was, in fact, with the Scottish Anti Predator Alliance. "Following their contact with the accused, the Alliance contacted police and they provided them with hard copies of messages which had been exchanged between the accused and the 'child'. "Police, on receipt of the evidence, arrested the accused." Allmark was taken to Saltcoats Police Office where he was interviewed, confirming to police officers that "he had been in conversation with a female whom he believed to be 12 years of age." Miss Cunningham explained: "The majority were not all of a sexual nature however, when taken together, appear to be an attempt by the accused to groom the 12-year-old, and there were items of a sexual nature within them. "In addition to sending personal images to the 'child', he also sent her a photo of a male penis and images of a nude female masturbating. "When he engaged with the child it appears he also sent a number of images of himself to her." Allmark, who was assisted in court by a sign language interpreter, nodded during his police interview to confirm he'd had sexual conversations with the 'child' and that he knew it was illegal, but insisted he was "not a paedophile." Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane placed Allmark on the Sex Offenders' Register, called for background reports to be prepared ahead of sentencing and adjourned the case until next month for that to be done.

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A CROSSHOUSE hospital worker has been jailed after being caught with a haul of child sex abuse and bestiality images. Former Three Towns resident Christopher Anderson had access to thousands of patients personal details and medical records through his job in the records department at the hospital, and was found with more than 5,000 images of children as young as two-years-old being abused. He appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last week and was sentenced to 22 months imprisonment and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years. The 29-year-old was also caught with images of adults engaged in sex acts with dogs after police raided his home in Irvine. Twisted Anderson also kept thousands of images on his phone and even carried two USB drives with him crammed full of abuse files. He was arrested at his work and taken to the police station to be questioned, where officers discovered the files were just the tip of the iceberg due to his mobile phone and his memory sticks. The details emerged when Anderson appeared in the dock at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last month to plead guilty over his sordid stash. He pleaded guilty to three charges - making child abuse images, possessing the illicit files, and being in possession of extreme pornographic material by having bestiality files, between March 2012 and September last year. He admitted his guilt after the date he began making and possessing the files was changed from March 2004 when he was 14. Procurator Fiscal Depute Peter Moyes said officers found a total of 4,957 still images and 195 films across the four devices, many of which were at the most extreme level. Sheriff Watson told Anderson: The number and categorisation of the images is very serious, some related to children as young as two. In my view theres no alternative but to send you to prison. He also made him the subject of a five-year-long Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO). It requires him to inform Police Scotlands National Offender Management Unit about all his internet-abled devices, give them his usernames and passwords and bans him from deleting or altering his internet history. He is banned from having any contact with anyone under 17 and has to tell police if he has a relationship or makes friends with someone who has a child aged 17 or under. PatriciaLeiser, Human Resources Director for NHS Ayrshire and Arran, said: On being alerted to this issue, we can confirm we took immediate action and this individual no longer works for NHS Ayrshire & Arran.

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Logan was convicted of sexual offences in 2016 – when he was 17 – and was given a supervision order.

In June, at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, 20-year-old Logan had admitted to downloading images of the sexual abuse of young children between March 2014 and December 2017.

He had previously been convicted in 2016 of eight cases of sexual assault, one of those on a child who was six at the time. His existing supervision order was extended by three years and he was freed, and rehoused in Sim Street, Stewarton, which sparked the protests.

Logan pleaded guilty to downloading the extensive child pornography

“But he walked out to his family and was immediately given a mobile phone and rehoused by East Ayrshire Council.”

Neither the police nor any of the agencies involved is required to tell neighbours that the new tenant is a convicted sex offender. 

Description

A man who raped a student hours after attacking another woman has been jailed for eight years and eight months.

Thomas Robertson raped the 21-year-old as she walked home from a friend's flat in Stirling in February.

The victim feared she was going to die as Robertson held a lump of concrete over her head during the attack.

Robertson, who has previous convictions for robbery, pled guilty to charges of rape and assault with intent to rape.

Robertson, 27, was told by judge Lord Boyd he posed a danger to the public and was ordered to be monitored in the community for five years after his release.

Escaped and hid

The High Court in Glasgow heard that the 21-year-old was attacked at about 02:30 on 3 February.

She was at an underpass near the Customs Roundabout in Stirling when Robertson struck.

Prosecutor Gillian Ross said: "She thought she was not going to escape with her life."

The court heard that hours earlier, Robertson, of Saltcoats, Ayrshire, attacked a 22-year-old woman.

She had also been heading to her home in Stirling around 23:00 on 2 February when Robertson grabbed her in Bridgehaugh Road.

Robertson repeatedly punched the woman, then pulled her towards bushes, covered her mouth and brandished a length of wood at her.

The woman escaped and hid until she managed to call the police.

Defence QC Brian McConnachie said: "He has a significant record, but not for anything sexual up until now. He realises his offending has spiralled out of control."

Lord Boyd told Robertson: "In the course of a few hours you subjected your victims to significant sexual attacks with significant violence and threats."