A notorious north-east paedophile has been locked up for nearly four years after he was caught messaging a schoolgirl for sex and downloading indecent images of infants.
David Scott, also known as Ritchie, was found to be buying alcohol and disposable vapes for the 14-year-old, who he met up with in secret over a six-month period.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that Scott – who was made subject to the sex offenders register for 10 years in 2017 – sourced a mobile phone for the teenager so he could communicate with her secretly on Snapchat.
In one sickening message he asked her if she would carry out a sex act on him in exchange for £10.
A subsequent police raid on the 26-year-old’s home unearthed a secret mobile phone that he used to download almost 1,300 indecent images and videos of children – most of which were of the most serious category.
The illicit phone was found to contain footage of children who were only months old, the court heard.
Scott was previously jailed when he breached his Sex Offences Prevention Order by befriending a woman and posing for selfies with her 11-year-old daughter at a foodbank.
Accused passed on child images
Fiscal depute Lucy Simpson told the court that in May last year police received information that Scott had been using a mobile telephone to communicate with children.
Officers raided Scott’s home on David Street, Inverbervie, on November 4 2022 where they found an iPhone in a black bag, which appeared to be hidden inside an envelope.
An examination of the phone found it contained 177 Category A images and 589 Category A videos.
A total of 208 Category B images and videos and 308 Category C images and videos were also found on the phone.
The children featured in the indecent material were between several months and 15 years of age.
Cybercrime officer determined the total runtime of the video content to be 52 hours, 26 minutes and 39 seconds.
It was also established that Scott had distributed the images and videos to other people.
Ms Simpson also told the court that in January 2022, Scott messaged a 14-year-old girl on Snapchat using the name “Maddie Smith”.
The teenager didn’t know who Maddie was but accepted the friend request.
Scott told the girl he knew someone who could source disposable vapes for her, which she agreed to.
The child was given the contact details of a different Snapchat account, which displayed the name “dave” and had a cartoon image of a male with ginger hair. The account was operated by Scott.
He then provided the teenager with a mobile phone so they could communicate and met up with her over the next six months and the teenager was given vapes and alcohol.
During the phone messages, Scott told the girl she was “cute, beautiful, adorable, sweet, kind and gorgeous”.
He also told the 14-year-old she didn’t “need any make-up because you are so adorable” and if she were to use make-up she would be “covering up her true beauty”.
Scott added that the girl she needed “to find someone who will show you you’re worth everything and will love you for you”.
Around this time, Scott sent the girl a message on Snapchat offering her £10 if she carried out a sex act on him, which she rejected.
Messaged second child on Instagram
A further analysis of Scott’s iPhone unearthed an Instagram conversation that he had on August 20 last year with someone who claimed to be just 11 years old.
During these conversations, Scott asked the child if they were “horny” or “a top or bottom”, alongside other explicit questions.
These charges constituted a breach of Scott’s Sexual Offences Prevention Order on three separate occasions.
Appearing in the dock, Scott, whose address was given as HMP Grampian, pleaded guilty to one charge of breaching his order by possessing a mobile phone and a second charge of communicating with a child under the age of 16.
He also admitted third charge of knowingly deleting files and messages from a prohibited phone.
In a second indictment, Scott pleaded guilty to one charge of downloading indecent images of children and a second charge of distributing indecent images of children.
He also admitted sending a sexual communication to a child under the age of 16.
‘Determined to continue offending’
Scott’s defence solicitor Leonard Birkenshaw that his client had been subject to the sex offenders register for “some considerable time” and had “significantly struggled with that”.
“Mr Scott has to accept that he did do what is alleged he has done,” he said.
“What he was doing was buying vapes and alcohol – nothing was going on apart from that – but it is inappropriate.
“He has got himself in a position where he is on and out and in and out of jail.”
Sentencing Scott, Sheriff Graham Buchanan described his actions as “quite a catalogue of offending in circumstances where you have a poor record for matters of a sexual nature”.
“It’s clear that you’re just determined to continue offending,” he said.
Telling Scott that “only a substantial period of imprisonment was appropriate”, the sheriff sentenced him to 47 months in prison and placed him on the sex offenders register for life.
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