George Low 20

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A serial paedophile who escaped being caged in April as a result of “soft touch” sentencing guidelines aimed at rehabilitating young offenders has finally lost his liberty – for raping a child.

George Low was remanded in custody for background reports to be prepared after he pleaded guilty at the High Court in Livingston to committing six serious offences against children.

The sexual predator has been warned he is unlikely to escape a significant sentence of detention when he returns to court on January 9 next year .

In addition to raping a girl under the age of 13, Low admitted sexually assaulting a schoolgirl under 13, causing a child to engage in sexual activity and two counts of using threatening behaviour towards a child.

The 20-year-old, from Bathgate, had not-guilty pleas accepted to 10 further charges on the morning his trial by jury was due to start on Friday.

The serial sex offender originally appeared on petition at Livingston Sheriff Court in December 2021 charged with rape and 50 other sexual offences.

Prior to last week’s High Court case, he was prosecuted at Livingston Sheriff Court in April earlier this year for coercing 28 schoolgirls – aged 13 to 16 – to view footage of him performing sex acts before threatening those who refused to reciprocate.

He targeted the youngsters over a three-year period on social media websites such as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat with his last victim being a 13-year-old girl who he targeted while he was on bail for earlier offences.

Despite offending from the summer of 2018 when he was just 15 years of age until he was 18-and-a-half years old, Sheriff Jane Farquharson chose not to sentence Low to detention because he had already spent the equivalent of a 30-month sentence on remand.

Instead she made him subject to intense social work supervision for three years and told his name would remain on the sex offenders’ register for the same period.

Given the pending High Court prosecution, she warned the accused that he remained at “very high risk of reoffending”.

She told him: “Of particular concern to me in sentencing you is your continued interest in young girls, that it would appear from this charge has persisted into your adulthood.

“Put frankly, as you have got older, the victims of your sexual interest have not aged accordingly.”

Sheriff Farquharson highlighted that Low had been the victim of neglect and a lack of care at home and had experienced domestic abuse, neglect and bereavement as a child.

She added: “You have had an entirely disjointed education, and spent much of your time in and out of foster care. You have not had the benefit of a supportive family or a pro-social group of positive peers.

“I understand that your traumatic childhood is likely to have impacted on your ability to regulate your emotions.

“But you must understand, Mr Low, as difficult as your life has been, that does not excuse your behaviour.”

The sentence imposed on Low was criticised as being too lenient by Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Jamie Greene MSP.

He said: “Concerning cases like this once again reaffirm just how ill-advised some sentencing guidelines are in reality.

“They do nothing to assure victims that justice is fully being served, something which SNP ministers seem oblivious to.”

He added: “The SNP government’s soft-touch approach to justice continues to prioritise the criminals over the victims and their families.

“It is vital that the victims are put first, which is why I’ve brought forward my Victims’ Law to Parliament.

“We must ensure that they are always at the heart of our justice system.”

The Low case followed the controversially lenient sentencing of Sean Hogg, who was convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in a Midlothian park.

Instead of being jailed for four or five years, Hogg was ordered to do 270 hours of unpaid work, put under supervision and had his name added to the sex offenders register for three years.

He benefited from the Scottish Sentencing Council’s guidelines, which came into effect in January 2022, advising against custodial sentences for those under the age of 25, and recommending that judges take into account an offender’s intellectual and emotional maturity.

Hogg, of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, eventually had his conviction quashed at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh in October this year.

Judge Lady Dorrian told him: “There was an insufficiency of evidence for a conviction and the inevitable.