Latest Offenders Edinburgh

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Edinburgh man Martin Lipscombe found with child abuse images after avoiding prison sentence

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told Lipscombe possessed more than 4000 images and videos
A man who previously escaped a jail sentence after he was caught performing a sex act over children’s clothing has been found storing a horror collection of child abuse images on his phone.

Martin Lipscombe began downloading disgusting pictures and videos of children as young as four years old being sexually abused to his mobile just 15 months after his last sentence.
 
Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told Lipscombe possessed more than 4000 images and videos depicting youngsters being raped while “blindfolded” and with their “limbs bound”. 

The court heard the 33-year-old sales assistant, from the capital’s Leith area, had also sent pictures of a young girl during sordid online chats with a fellow pervert.

He appeared in the dock at the capital court on Thursday where he pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing indecent images of children between November 2022 and January last year.
Lipscombe avoided custody three years ago after he was caught with disgusting videos of him performing a solo sex act over children’s clothing.

Vile Lipscombe also took pictures of a 12-year-old girl and her clothing hanging on a washing line and sent the images to an unknown male.

He also admitted to discussing having the child watch him while he masturbated over her clothing during the sick online conversations with the male.
He was placed on the Sex Offenders Register and a supervision order for two years and banned from entering the grounds of schools, nurseries and children’s playparks.

This week prosecutor Chelsea Martin said police received intelligence Lipscombe was accessing child abuse images and turned up at his home at around 8am on January 6 last year.

The court was told the sicko was at home with his grandmother and he had handed over a mobile phone to officers stating “he knew what this is about”.

Ms Martin said a forensic analysis showed the device held 4335 child abuse images with 591 rated as Category A - the worst end of the scale. The fiscal said there were also 73 videos - 38 at Category A - depicting young children being sexually abused by adults found on the device.

The court was told the victims were “female children aged between four and 15 years of age” and had been subjected to “oral, anal and vaginal and penetration by adult males”.

Ms Martin added: “Some of the pictures depicted the children blindfolded and some had their limbs bound.”

The fiscal said police officers also uncovered chat logs containing around 20,000 messages where Lipscombe had sent “photos of a young female child” to another person.

Lawyer Paul Smith, defending, said his client “is under no illusion to the seriousness of this crime” and said he would reserve his full mitigation to the sentencing hearing.

Sheriff Julius Komorowski placed Lipscombe on the Sex Offenders Register on an interim basis and deferred full sentence for the preparation of social work reports to next month.

Lipscombe pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children at his home between November 2, 2022 and January 6 last year.

He also admitted to distributing indecent images of children to others from his home between November 2 and December 28, 2022.

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A former Leuchars soldier has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register after he sent a picture of his private parts to an ex-partners young sister.

Ex-squaddie Josh Reed, who has now left the armed forces, committed the offence while stationed at Leuchars base in February 2021.

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A Scots teenager has been caught with a horror haul of sex abuse images involving children as young as two-years-old.

Patryk Sienkiewicz was found to possess more than 300 indecent images of children when police raided his home in the Royston Mains area of Edinburgh earlier this year. Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told the teen had also downloaded a disgusting video depicting an adult engaging in sexual activity with an animal.

Sienkiewicz, 19, appeared in court on Thursday, where he pleaded guilty to two sexual offences on January 23 this year. Fiscal depute Connor Muir told the court police received intelligence the images were downloaded at the teenager’s address and found him home alone when they arrived with a search warrant.

Mr Muir said a computer and a mobile phone were seized and when the devices were examined by cyber crime experts it was found he had collected a total of 337 images and 114 videos. The court was told the pictures showed female children aged between two and five-years-old being penetrated by adult men.

The images also depicted youngsters posing naked and one video found contained bestiality involving an adult and an animal. Mr Muir said 28 images and videos were rated as Category A, the worst kind, along with 125 at Category B and 298 at Category C.

The Crown motion for forfeiture of the devices was continued to the next hearing. Sheriff Kevin McCarron placed Sienkiewicz on the Sex Offenders Register and deferred sentence for social work reports and a restriction of liberty order assessment to be prepared to next month.

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A 57-year-old man has pleaded guilty to a series of sexual offences against children that took place throughout Scotland between 1984 and 1989.

At the High Court in Edinburgh on Friday, 10 November, Rowland Reilly pled guilty to the charges including indecent assaults. He is due to be sentenced at Edinburgh High Court on Friday, 8 December.

Detective Inspector Anna Johnston said: “Rowland Reilly now faces the consequences of his despicable and distressing actions.

“The passage of time does not make these incidents any easier to talk about. His victims have been incredibly strong in coming forward and disclosing the abuse they suffered. Our thoughts remain with them and I hope Reilly’s convictions brings them some comfort and allows them to move forward with their lives.

“We remain committed to supporting victims of sexual crime and protecting children from harm and abuse. We will use all available resources to find and arrest those responsible, no matter how much time has passed. I would urge people to come forward. You will be fully supported by officers and our partner agencies.”

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An Edinburgh student has been caught with a shocking haul of almost 250,000 child abuse images and videos.

Cheng Xia, 24, was found to be in possession of the massive collection of sick material over a six year period when police raided his home in the capital last year. Xia, who was due to begin studying for a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Edinburgh, appeared in the dock at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to the offence.

Defence solicitor George Henry told the court his client’s university plans are now on hold due to his arrest in November last year. Prosecutor Ross Price told the court police officers arrived at Xia’s flat in the Newington area of the city with a search warrant on November 25 last year.

Devices were seized and it was subsequently discovered the chemistry student had downloaded a total of 234,039 indecent images of children and 1531 videos. The court heard 202 images and seven films were rated at Category A - the most depraved end of the scale - along with 1015 pictures and 21 videos at Category B. The Category C files showed he had 232, 872 images and 1503 videos depicting child abuse.

Sheriff Robert Fife placed Xia on the Sex Offenders Register and deferred sentence to November 29. Xia pleaded guilty to possessing a total of 234,375 images and videos of indecent images of children at his home address between January 1, 2017 and November 25 last year.

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A child rapist who started abusing girls when he was just 12-years-old has been given a lighter prison sentence due to his ‘immaturity’ at the time of the attacks.

Mohammed Ahmed, who is now 24, repeatedly sexually assaulted two younger girls in Edinburgh. Police had been called to his former home after he told them he was considering taking his own life. Officers later discovered there had been a confrontation involving Ahmed and a victim days earlier during which he was accused of raping her.

The sex offender, from Mayfield Road in Edinburgh, denied a series of charges during an earlier trial but was convicted of five offences involving two girls. He was found guilty of sexually assaulting and raping one girl when she was aged nine in December 2010. The High Court in Edinburgh also convicted him of assaulting her by punching her, grabbing her by the hair and dragging her.

Ahmed was also found guilty of sexually assaulting and raping a second girl on various occasions between 2010 and 2014, including physical assaults during which he punched her and pulled her hair and on one occasion pushed her down stairs and throttled her after putting his arm around her neck, reports Edinburgh Live.

Judge Lord Doherty said Ahmed had a tough childhood and suffered with his mental health. He told him: "Had you been an adult at the time of all of these offences the sentence I would have passed would have been more severe. In light of your immaturity at the time of most of these offences, the sentence which I pass is an extended sentence of six years imprisonment, of which the custodial part is four years and the extension period is two years." It means Ahmed will spend four years behind bars and a further two years on licence.

Defending, Gareth Jones KC said his client continued to deny committing the offences and has not committed any further crimes since his attacks between the age of 12 and 15. But he acknowledged that ‘serious harm’ was caused and argued that given Ahmed's young age now and at the time of the offending the guidelines for sentencing young persons applied in his case.

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A pervert was caught with a sick haul of child sex abuse images after a police raid at his home.

Allan MacLeod was snared after cops received intelligence that indecent material was being downloaded at his address.

Officers traced MacLeod after linking him to a Virgin Media internet subscription and swooped in on his Edinburgh flat.

More than 2000 vile images of child abuse were recovered from a seized computer unit, the Record reports.

MacLeod, 35, appeared at the city’s sheriff court on Tuesday and pled guilty to possessing indecent images of youngsters.

Fiscal depute Jennifer McLaren said MacLeod was at his home in the Niddrie area when police arrived at his door.

Ms McLaren said cyber crime experts examined a system unit taken from the property.

The court heard 163 Category A - the worst level - were found to have been downloaded.

The prosecutor said there were also 163 Category B stills and another 1956 at Category C which had been downloaded.

She added: “The images were found in different locations in different databases.

“The file names were indicative of child abuse material.”

Sheriff Ian Anderson deferred sentence on MacLeod until next month for reports.

The sheriff placed MacLeod on the sex offender register on an interim basis until sentencing.

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A retired fire chief has been placed on the sex offenders register after he was caught with child sex abuse images.

Jamie McMurtrie – who had 30 years service with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service – was found to have downloaded indecent images of children to his mobile phone when police raided his home on August 24 last year.

The former crew manager retired from duty in 2016 and had been working as a Heritage volunteer with the fire service between June 2022 and June this year.

McMurtrie, 58, admitted at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month to possessing the pictures and he was back in the dock for sentencing on Thursday.

Sheriff Anderson placed McMurtrie on a six-month supervision order and issued a conduct requirement that prohibits him from owning devices that can access the internet without prior permission.

McMurtrie was also placed on the sex offenders register for six months and banned from having any contact with children under 18 unless authorised by his supervising officer.

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An Edinburgh man has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register after he was caught with thousands of horrific child abuse images.

Thomas Carroll, 58, downloaded more than 2800 still pictures of children being sexually abused by adults including images of rape over a near four year period. He was also found to have accessed 634 videos of abuse with more than half being rated as Category A - the most vile end of the spectrum.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told on Tuesday that Police Scotland received intelligence in November last year that the images were being accessed at Carroll’s home at the Wester Hailes area of the capital. Officers attended at the property with a search warrant at around 8.15am on December 20 last year and found the offender home alone.

Fiscal depute Jennifer McLaren told the court two mobile phones, two USB devices and a laptop were seized from the home. A subsequent cyber crime investigation showed three of the devices held thousands of indecent images of children. The fiscal said a total of 2,823 images and 634 videos of children being sexually abused had been stored on the devices.

Solicitor Kevin Connor, defending, said there were “clearly a lot of images” discovered and he acknowledged his client was facing “a very serious matter”.

Sheriff Ian Anderson placed Carroll on the Sex Offenders Register for a term still to be determined and deferred sentence for the preparation of social work reports to next month.

Carroll, who is a first offender, was granted bail and wore a face mask in an attempt to hide his identity when he left the city centre court building this afternoon. He had pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children at his home between January 9, 2019 and December 20 last year.

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A man who raped three women, including one who was just 14 when the attacks began, has been jailed for 10 years.

Bradley Isherwood, 25, abused one his victims while another man encouraged him.

The woman, who is now aged 24, told the High Court in Edinburgh she was serially raped and assaulted between 2016 and 2021.

All of Isherwood's attacks took place at locations in Edinburgh and Musselburgh, East Lothian.

The 24-year-old woman told the court that during one attack, another man played the Kings of Leon song Sex On Fire on his phone while Isherwood abused her.

She said: "I said no. I am tired. It became clear that he wasn't going to take no for an answer so I just kind of lay there and took it."

The victim said Isherwood's friend was "clapping his hands and saying 'come on Bradley, come on Bradley'."

"He was playing Your Sex is on Fire. He had an iPhone," she said.

'He felt entitled'

The woman also spoke about a time when Isherwood pinned her to the bed by the throat.

She said: "There was quite a lot of pressure. I couldn't speak. I genuinely thought he was going to choke me.

"I tried but I couldn't get his hand free from my throat.

"When I was on the bed and he had me by the throat and I couldn't speak back, he said he was going to kill me."

The woman said that Isherwood felt "entitled" about having sex.

Judge Lord Tyre sentenced Isherwood, who had pleaded not guilty to the attacks, to 10 years in prison and ordered that he be supervised by the authorities for three years after his release.

He was also put on the sex offenders register for life.

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A man has been jailed for four years and three months after being convicted of a sexual offence in Edinburgh.

Antonio Pollio, 24, pleaded guilty to the offence involving a young female at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday, 21 August, 2023.

He was sentenced at the same court on Thursday, 28 September.

Detective Inspector Mhairi Cooper said: Antonio Pollio is a dangerous man who manipulated and coerced a young female. He will now face the consequences of his actions.

"We treat all reports of sexual crime seriously and I would urge anyone who has been a victim to come forward, no matter how much time has passed, and report it to police.

"Be assured, we will fully investigate and you will be supported by police and our partner agencies.

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A pervert driving instructor has been convicted of sexually assaulting more teenagers during lessons after a fresh investigation.

Findlay Munro preyed on young women learning to drive in Edinburgh, touching them and making inappropriate comments.

Munro dodged a jail sentence last year after admitting targeting four victims while giving them lessons.

The 63-year-old appeared at the city’s sheriff court on Wednesday to plead guilty to offences against a further four pupils.

Two of the victims were just 17 when creepy Munro took advantage of being alone in a car with them.

The court heard how he sexually assaulted the teens by touching their legs.

Munro also made inappropriate comments to another two women while teaching them to drive.

Sheriff John Cook deferred sentence until next month for reports.

Munro appeared in court last September for sentencing after admitting the four earlier charges.

He was given two years supervision with a conduct requirement to undertake “offence-focused work”.

He was also put on the sex offenders register for two years.

But the court heard on Wednesday how further offences dating back to 2014 had been uncovered.

Munro admitted touching a 17-year-old’s leg without consent during lessons between August 2014 and April 2015.

He also pled guilty to sexually assaulting another 17-year-old by repeatedly touching her leg without consent during lessons between September 2015 and March 2016.

Munro admitted making inappropriate remarks and comments about a third pupil’s appearance for the purposes of gaining sexual gratification between September 2015 and April 2016.

And he admitted the same charge against a fourth woman between December 2019 and March 2020.

Last year the court heard how Munro, of the city’s Baberton area, repeatedly targeted four victims before a police investigation landed him in court.

Those offences took place between 2017 and 2021.

A mother previously told the Record how her 17-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted by “scumbag” Munro. She paid for her daughter to receive weekly two-hour lessons from him when he was an instructor through Red Driving School.

She said: “She came back after the first lesson and told me Munro called all his pupils his ‘girlfriends’. I thought it was bizarre, but my daughter said it was fine, she just wanted to pass her test.

“Looking back, she would get really, really anxious before every lesson but I put it down to nerves.

“Then another girl said police were speaking to Munro’s pupils and my daughter said some things had happened to her.

“I got her to write it down, because it was difficult for her. It was awful to read. I was so angry and contacted the police myself to report it.”

Munro pled guilty to sexually assaulting the teen on various occasions on Edinburgh roads between December 2020 and August last year by touching her on the head and rubbing her thigh.

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A Big Issue seller who was caught spying on a young woman as she used the toilet at a prestigious department store has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register.

Benjamin-Cornel Teglas hid inside a cubicle at the women’s toilets and peered under the partition after the 22-year-old victim had entered the stall next to him at the John Lewis store in Edinburgh.

The shocked woman was said to have been “frozen and alarmed” and after shouting at the pervert she ran from the toilet area and informed staff.

The 20-year-old offender was later picked up by police officers who had viewed CCTV in a bid to identify the culprit following the incident on May 27 this year.

Teglas pleaded guilty to observing the woman doing a private act when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court with the aid of a Romanian interpreter last month and he returned to the dock for sentencing on Thursday.

Defending lawyer Mary Moultrie said her client was a first offender and he “fully accepts responsibility for his actions”.

Ms Moultrie said Teglas was working full time selling the Big Issue and though he has a non-analogous outstanding matter in Romania he is planning on returning to Scotland to live.

Sheriff Peter McCormack said: “You pleaded guilty a a trial diet to a serious sexual offence whereby you entered the ladies toilets at John Lewis in Edinburgh on May 27.

“CCTV showed you were loitering for around 18 minutes and in the course of that period you looked under a partition greatly to the alarm of a young woman there. The offence meets the custody threshold but I note your age and you have no previous convictions.”

Sheriff McCormack sentenced Teglas to an alternative to a custody and ordered him to carry out 135 hours of unpaid work in the community.

Teglas, of the capital’s Wester Hailes, was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years.

Previously fiscal depute India McLean told the court the victim and her sister were shopping in the John Lewis store when they decided to go to the toilet area at around 2.20pm on May 27 this year.

Ms McLean said Teglas had earlier been spotted loitering around the area and was seen to be “checking around to see if anyone was there” before entering the female toilet.

The court heard the victim then “unknowingly” took the cubicle next to the one Teglas was in and locked the door behind her.

The fiscal depute said: “She then looked down and seen Mr Teglas with his head under her cubicle.

“She was initially frozen and alarmed and has then shouted ‘what do you think you are doing?’

“Mr Teglas held her eye contact and stared at her for a few seconds before removing his head back into his own cubicle.”

The woman fled the toilet area and Teglas was said to have “eventually peered out from his own cubicle and has then made off from the toilet”.

Teglas pleaded guilty to observing a woman doing a private act by occupying a cubicle of a woman’s toilet area and placing his head through the gap under the cubicle and look into the cubicle occupied by her at John Lewis, St James Quarter, Edinburgh, on May 27 this year.

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A despicable rapist who attacked a woman while she waited for a bus in Edinburgh has been jailed.

Christopher Pringle has been sentenced to seven years in prison for raping the woman in August 2020. The 43-year-old, who was convicted at the High Court in May, was also placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely when he returned for sentencing on Friday, July 7.

Detective Chief Inspector George Calder said: Pringles behaviour was despicable, and he will now face the consequences of his actions. It is my sincere hope the courage shown in this case will reassure all victims of sexual violence that they can come forward, no matter how much time has passed, and report it to police. Be assured, we will fully investigate, and you will be supported by officers and our partner agencies.

This case was brought to a conclusion by the divisional rape investigation unit, a specialist unit dedicated to robustly and sensitively investigate cases of this nature, bringing perpetrators to justice and supporting victims and their families."

STV News reports the woman was waiting for a bus when she was attacked by Pringle in Crown Street, off Leith Walk, on August 20, 2020.

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A 40-YEAR-OLD man has been remanded in custody at Jedburgh Sheriff Court after he admitted attempting to communicate indecently with a 12-year-old girl.

Ashley Bell approached his intended victim on the Instagram messaging service, before switching the conversation to Snapchat – where messages delete themselves once they have been read.

Despite being told she was getting ready for school and looking forward to her 13th birthday, the court heard Bell instigated conversations about sex toys, breasts and “spent quite a bit of time” boasting about the size of his manhood.

It later emerged the person Bell had been communicating with was in fact an undercover police officer and their chat had been recorded.

Bell admitted intentionally, and for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification, or of humiliating, distressing or alarming a person he believed was a child under the age of 13, sending messages of a sexual nature to her over social media.

Bell, described as a prisoner in Edinburgh, committed the offence at an address in Lovel Court, Hawick, and elsewhere, between March 6 and 15.

Sentence was deferred on Bell until July 31 for background reports, including guidance on post-release supervision

Sheriff Douglas Keir warned him he is likely to receive a custodial sentence, in addition to being the subject of the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act.