Latest Offenders Dundee

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A high-risk sex offender who uploaded explicit footage to a social media site has been jailed for five years.

Gavin Cooper, 38, repeatedly raped a sleeping woman at a house in Dundee before going on to commit sex crimes against two other women.

Judge Norman McFadyen told Cooper at the High Court in Edinburgh the rape offence was the most serious but that his other crimes disclosed a troubling attitude towards women.

Mr McFadyen said: Your behaviour is plainly abusive of women and demonstrates in all their cases a callous disregard for their privacy, private space and their bodies.

I accept you have been acquitted of some of the most serious charges against you but you remain convicted of serious charges against three different women.

The judge added it was clear that a custodial sentence was required to deal with Cooper, who followed the sentencing proceedings via video link from Perth prison.

Judge McFadyen also ordered that Cooper be kept under supervision for a further three years and warned that if he failed to comply with conditions his licence could be revoked.

Cooper had originally faced a total of 23 charges and denied the offending during an earlier trial.

He was found guilty of raping one woman on various occasions between December 2010 and June 2015.

He was also convicted of sexually assaulting a second sleeping woman by touching her thigh, breasts and privates at a hotel in Edinburgh on August 5 in 2018.

And Cooper was further convicted of sending explicit images and video footage of a further woman to her and another woman in Dundee in January last year.

The jury also found him guilty of sending footage of the woman engaged in intercourse to her and another female and uploading it to the YouTube website with the intention to cause her fear, alarm or distress in January last year.

Defence counsel Jonathan Crowe said that Cooper continued to deny the offences, but respected the decision of the jury at his trial.

He said the self-employed electrician had worked both in this country and abroad and was set to go to Amsterdam for a contract when he was detained last year.

Mr Crowe said his previous offending did not have a sexual element and added: He has never previously received a custodial sentence.

Cooper was told that he would be placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

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Paul Brownlee, who has worked for the likes of Wave 102 and Radio Forth, previously fronted events with stars such as the Cheeky Girls.

A local radio DJ who was found with more than 600 indecent images of children on his computer has been spared jail.

Paul Brownlee who has worked for Wave 102 in Dundee, Radio Forth in Edinburgh and Borders Radio was sentenced to two years supervision in the community and 200 hours of unpaid work.

The DJ is a familiar face around the country due to his radio work and has fronted events with stars such as the Cheeky Girls.

At a previous hearing Dundee Sheriff Court heard that Brownlee, 47, was a manager at Specsavers in St Andrews at the time of his arrest last April.

He had no previous convictions but police, acting on a tip-off that indecent images of children might be found on devices at his home, raided last January.

Brownlee, who now lives with his mother in the Borders, was in the flat with his partner and her child.

Following a search by officers, his laptop was seized and passed on to the forces cybercrime unit.

It contained contain 663 inaccessible indecent images of children including 16 category A, 30 category B and 617 category C images.

Brownlee later admitted making the indecent photographs between January 2018 and January 2019.

Stuart Hamilton, who represented Brownlee on Wednesday, said his client had demonstrated an appropriate understanding of the seriousness of the offences.

Social work reports said Brownlee posed limited risk to the public and there were no protection issues.

Sheriff Lorna Drummond told him that because he was a first offender and the number of images was in the 100s rather than the 1000s that she would not jail him.

She said the community payback order was a direct alternative to custody and as well as his sentence she placed him on the sexual offenders register for two years.

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A "manipulative" art teacher has been convicted of a string of indecent and sexual assaults against female pupils.

A court heard James Skelton Smith, 57, would regularly drop his pencil in order to crawl under desks in class.

After a three-day trial Smith, of Dundee, was found guilty of indecent assault, sexual assault, and breach of the peace.

The offences took place against current and former pupils over an 11-year period between 2008 and 2019.

Sheriff John Rafferty deferred sentence until next month for background reports.

He told Smith: "I found the Crown witnesses to be credible and reliable, in the main exceedingly impressive witnesses, and in some instances courageous witnesses.

"The case against you is compelling."

Creepy

Smith showed no emotion as the verdict was announced.

The court heard he had been suspended from the school, where he had worked as a part-time teacher for expressive art, for nine months and would now lose his job.

During the trial, three young schoolgirls said "creepy" Smith would repeatedly drop his pencil and crawl under their tables on his hands and knees, staring at their legs.

One woman said she left school early in her sixth year in 2009 because she "started getting the feeling that he was nudging our relationship somewhere I didn't want to go".

Another former female pupil said she had "played dead" after Smith, who taught at the school for 25 years, touched her inappropriately when she went back to his house after meeting him in Dundee.

Smith denied all the charges and described the account of a 17-year-old pupil he kissed as "Alice Through The Looking Glass".

But prosecutor Laura Bruce said: "He treated her in a way that made her feel grown up and feel special - and then he pounced."

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A paedophile caught downloading a sickening stash of child abuse images for the second time after a bid to rehabilitate him failed has been jailed.

Paul Ogilvie was previously ordered to complete a sex offenders rehabilitation programme in 2006 after being convicted of possessing indecent images of children.

But last year police were tipped off that that course had failed and that Ogilvie had again been accessing child abuse images.

They raided the address he shared with his partner and her child in the Coldside area of Dundee and discovered he had amassed a depraved collection of abuse images.

Some of the 1,850 images and 145 videos found depicted distressed children being raped, forced into bondage and S&M activities and even being urinated on.

Fiscal depute Nicola Gillespie told Dundee Sheriff Court that police were tipped off to Ogilvies activities and raided his address in Strathmartine Road, Dundee, on May 29 last year.

She said 540 of the still images and 85 of the videos found on his laptop were at the most explicit level of the scale used to categorise such pictures.

Miss Gillespie added: The images depicted boys and girls aged from infant to 15 years.

Analysis found the user had searched a Russian photography website often found by the cyber crime unit due to its content of indecent images.

That website contained images of boys aged 10 to 15 exposing their genitals.

He was cautioned and interviewed and made no comment throughout.

Ogilvie, 52, of Strathmore Avenue, Dundee, pleaded guilty on indictment to taking or making indecent images of children by downloading them between April 17 and May 29 last year.

Defence solicitor David Sinclair said: He no longer resides with his partner and her daughter.

He is no longer working and is on employment support allowance.

This is not the first time this situation has arisen and he has taken steps to address his offending behaviour.

Sheriff Alastair Carmichael jailed Ogilvie for a year and placed him on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

He said: Ive come to the conclusion that given your previous conviction for which you were placed on the Tay Project [sex offenders programme] theres no alternative but a custodial sentence.

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A man who plied two young men with alcohol then filmed himself sexually assaulting them as they slept has been jailed for four years and four months.

Binman John Worsley, 44, of Pitkerro Road, was also placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

The sentence was imposed at Dundee Sheriff Court after Worsley admitted sexually assaulting two men on two separate occasions at his Dundee home.

The court heard both men were known to Worsley and had individually approached him for relationship advice.

Fiscal depute Eilidh Robertson told the court one victim agreed to meet Worsley at his home and was completely wasted within hours of arriving.

The fiscal said: His next memory is of Worsley holding him under the arms and pulling him out of the living room, and his head banging off the corner of the door.

His feet were being dragged. He heard the accused say, Ill put you to bed.

Worsley then put the man on his bed and stripped him naked before handling his privates and performing numerous sex acts some of the most serious nature on his victim and sex acts on himself.

The fiscal said the man had absolutely no recollection of events and awoke to a bright light being shone in his face and the sound of a camera shutter.

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A convicted Dundee sex offender who searched the Internet for “extremely graphic” images of toddlers being abused has avoided being jailed for life.

A convicted Dundee sex offender who searched the Internet for “extremely graphic” images of toddlers being abused has avoided being jailed for life.

Despicable Brian Clark,45, was handed a three and half year prison sentence by judge Lady Stacey at the High Court in Edinburgh on Friday.

Lady Stacey also ordered that the pervert be supervised by the authorities for three and a half years following his release from jail.

Clark, of Dundee, was sent to the high court after being convicted of possessing child pornography at the city’s sheriff court in December 2015.

Police raided his house last July and found 15 hours of video and almost 450 images of children aged between one to 15 being abused on his laptop.

He purchased the computer just two weeks after an Internet ban for a previous sex offence had expired.

Sheriff George Way remitted the case to the high court for sentencing after hearing how Clark had previous convictions for lewd and libidinous behaviour.

He was released from prison and was on licence which expired on May 18 2015.

Sheriff Way thought that Clark’s criminal record meant there could be a possibility that he was eligible for the imposition of an Order for Lifelong Restriction.

Such an order means that people who receive it are only released back into the community once the parole board consider that they no longer pose a threat to public safety.

However, on Friday, Lady Stacey said she was satisfied that Clark’s offending could be dealt with by the imposition of an extended sentence.

She said: “I am satisfied from the reports placed before me that the matter can be dealt with without the imposition of an OLR.”

At original proceedings in Dundee Sheriff Court, depute fiscal Nicola Gillespie said police had gone to his home after receiving a tip off that indecent images of children had been downloaded there.

She said: “They found the accused and his partner at the address and a number of items including an Acer laptop and a USB device were seized.”

Miss Gillespie said a total of 268 videos were found on the equipment, which many of the images being category A, which contains the most serious and graphic sexual activities.

Clark, a prisoner of HMP Perth, pleaded guilty to the offences which which were committed between May 31 and June 29 in Dundee.

After Sheriff Way sent the matter to the high court, specially trained social workers assessed Clark to see if he met the criteria for an OLR.

The court heard on Friday that social workers concluded that Clark didn’t need an OLR and that he could be rehabilitated.

Defence advocate Susan Duff told the court: “This is a matter which could be dealt with by the imposition of an extended sentence.

“He is someone who can become a functioning member of society without having the deviant interests which he has had.”

Lady Stacey then imposed the extended sentence on Clark.

“He could take the courses which prisons have available in which he can address his issues.

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A TEENAGER has admitted having sex with three children in Dundee.

Kyle Leonard, 19, committed the offences on separate occasions between the winter of 2013 and the spring of 2014, Dundee Sheriff Court heard.

He admitted to having sex with a child on various occasions between early 2013 and late 2013 at a property in Dundee.

He further admitted having sex with another child at another location within the city between 2013 and 2014.

And he admitted a charge of having sex with a third child over the course of two months in 2014 at another property in Dundee.

Sentence for Leonard whose address was given in court as Polmont Prison was deferred for reports until May 17.

Meanwhile, Leonard also appeared on a charge that he shouted and swore inside Dundee Sheriff Court on a date earlier this year.

The former Lawton Terrace resident admitted that, on February 4, at the court, he behaved in a threatening or abusive manner which was likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm in that he repeatedly shouted and swore.

He committed the offence while he was on bail.

Sentence on that was also deferred until May 17.

Laurie Matthew, of Dundee-based Eighteen and Under, says her charity offers support to those who have been victims of cases like these.

She said: A person of that age is very impressionable and would possibly be flattered by the attention of a young man.

The child would not have the social skills or life experience, though, to manage such a relationship.

A child would find it difficult to resist pressures to have sex as it would be outwith the youngsters experience.

While the child might be unaware of how this might affect them at the time due to being emotionally immature, the chances are that children who have experienced this might well end up with emotional and psychological problems.

In Dundee there is support for young survivors of such abuse.

Eighteen And Under provides a high level of confidential support and young people can just drop in of an evening or make an appoint, if preferred.

There is also Victim Support and WRASAC who also provide support.

She added: Regarding the offender, not enough work is done to stop these men reoffending and unfortunately their sentencing does not reflect the seriousness of the crime.

Abuse can affect survivors their whole lives but these men often only spend a few months in prison.