A Skye farmer who was jailed for nine months for preying on young boys for sexual stimulation has won an appeal against his sentence.
Neil Campbell was found guilty of a string of sex offences in August last year after a five day jury trial at Inverness Sheriff Court.
The 68-year-old, of Talisker Farm, had denied exposing himself and having sexually explicit conversations with boys under 16 between March 21, 1995 and January 19, 2011.
He claimed a brain injury sustained in a road accident in 1980 rendered him unable to control his inhibitions and behaviour.
Sheriff Jamie Gilchrist QC had deferred sentence on several occasions to get more information on Campbell’s brain injury, the affect it had on him and what could be done to rehabilitate him.
But eventually he dismissed the defence stating: “It is quite clear these were not impulsive acts. They were deliberately engineered sometimes in enclosed places and in vehicles and your victims were children.”
He jailed Campbell for nine months and ordered him to remain on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
Campbell was also banned from leaving Skye for five years and prohibited from having contact with children under the age of 16 or vulnerable adults without police approval.
However, Campbell appealed against the sentence and now appeal court judges have ruled on the case.
After a hearing at the appeal court in Edinburgh this week, Lord Drummond Young and Lord Malcolm quashed the nine month sentence.
Instead they admonished Campbell.