A sex offender who was caught filming young girls in Aberdeen city centre without their knowledge has been handed a prison sentence.
Greig Dow appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court for sentencing after he admitted possessing more than 5,500 indecent images of children and over 19 hours of video footage.
Among the footage seized following a raid of the 41-year-old’s home was numerous videos featuring Dow and a young child.
Dow, who has a previous sex offence conviction from 2021, was also found to have been recording videos of teenage girls around the city.
Sheriff Andrew Miller told Dow he was “satisfied” a prison sentence was appropriate due to his belief that the recordings were made for “deriving sexual gratification”.
Nearly 20 hours of video found on Aberdeen paedophile’s devices
Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton told the court at a previous hearing that police were granted a search warrant for Dow’s home on September 5 2019 after receiving intelligence.
A number of confiscated devices held a total of 5,583 indecent images of children and videos with a combined duration of 19 hours and 44 minutes.
The images spanned April 30 2008 to December 21 2022.
Around 5,537 images were of the least serious Category C, but six images and 11 videos were Category B and two videos were the most severe Category A.
However, as cybercrime officers went through the footage they discovered videos featuring Dow and a young girl.
Greig Dow claimed touching was ‘playful not sexual’
During a series of videos that last several hours, Dow is seen embracing the child, placing her on his lap and squeezing her buttocks.
In another video, he kisses her on the mouth for around a minute, while in other videos he is seen kissing the child before making a “devil horns” gesture to the camera or punching the air in celebration.
Videos that show Dow focusing the camera on the child’s buttocks or crotch area were also discovered.
When interviewed by the police about the incidents, the girl said she had no recollection of the events taking place.
During his own police interview, Dow claimed that the touching was “playful and not sexual”.
On Dow’s devices, officers also found footage that he’d recorded of young girls on Union Street and St Nicholas Street in Aberdeen.
A series of videos showed him focusing on the buttocks of teenage girls, especially ones wearing shorts or tight leggings.
The girls appear unaware they are being filmed and, on one occasion, Dow filmed a mum and her young daughter until the woman appears to look directly into the camera, at which point the camera suddenly focuses on Union Street.
During an unannounced home visit in March last year, officers discovered that Dow had downloaded a cloud storage and file hosting app onto his phone without notifying police – breaching the notification requirements of the sex offenders register.
A further 226 images and video files were found that showed 45 instances when Dow had followed young girls close to Beach Boulevard, Aberdeen, where he again focused on their buttocks.
Appearing in the dock last month, Dow pled guilty to one charge of sexually assaulting an underage child.
He also admitted to a second charge of making video recordings of an underage child and pled guilty to a third charge of downloading indecent images of children.
Dow also pled guilty to a charge of conducting himself in a disorderly manner by filming young girls around Aberdeen and a final charge of breaching the registration requirements.
‘He does need help’
His defence solicitor, Bruce MacDonald, told the court that he believed his client had “struggled” to understand that “assault can also be a sexual act” within the social work report.
“What Mr Dow was accused of will fall into that category,” he said.
“He knows his behaviour was problematic, it’s some sort of attraction and it’s something with which he does need help.
“I imagine that the court will be somewhat sceptical, but we have a man here who has never been to prison before and had now served the equivalent of a 19-month sentence.”
Sheriff Miller told Dow that his offences were “serious” and also spanned a “considerable period of time”.
“There was a significant sexual aspect to your behaviour and you carried this out for deriving sexual gratification.
“I’m satisfied that the period for which you will be sentenced is sufficient to protect the public from serious harm from you.”
Sheriff Miller sentenced Dow, whose address was given as HMP Grampian, to a period of imprisonment of two years with a further two years on licence, backdated to January 13 this year.
He also placed Dow on the sex offenders register for life.
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