A Stonehaven babysitter who showed pornography to children as young as four has been handed a supervision order to help her change her ways.
Kirsty Sutherland also used the controversial website Omegle to make a sexually explicit video call with an unknown male while in the presence of two youngsters she was supposed to be looking after.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told Sutherland, 20, went into the bathroom before returning and telling the youngsters she had urinated for the man and exposed her breasts.
Sutherland, previously of MacDonald Road in Stonehaven but now of Rose Bank Road, Childwall, Liverpool, pled guilty to four charges and has now appeared back in the dock to be sentenced.
‘A deeply damaged young lady’
Defence agent John McLeod told the court his client was a first-offender and was still young at only 20 years of age.
He said a social work report detailed Sutherland’s “truly horrific childhood”.
He added: “This is a deeply damaged young lady.”
Mr McLeod said she would benefit from the support of a supervision order.
Sheriff Ian Wallace warned Sutherland her actions could have caused harm to the children involved.
He explained the sentence was focused on “public protection” by ensuring there would be no further offending in future.
The sheriff imposed a three-year supervision order as well as a requirement to undertake program work as a direct alternative to custody.
He also made her subject to the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act.
Across four charges, Sutherland admitted intentionally causing a four-year-old and seven-year-old to look at a sexual image.
She also pled guilty to directing sexual verbal communications and showing a live sexual video to an 11-year-old and 12-year-old for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification or of humiliating, distressing or alarming them.
‘Children observed male on video call who had his penis exposed’
The charges originally included an allegation that Sutherland had encouraged the older children to have sexual intercourse with each other, but that was deleted from the charge before the plea was tendered.
Pleas of not guilty were also accepted to charges that Sutherland had exposed her breasts and urinated in front of the older children.
At an earlier hearing, fiscal depute Andrew McMann said Sutherland had been working as a trainee nursery practitioner at the time of the offences but also babysat for families in the Stonehaven area.
On an occasion between March and April last year, Sutherland was babysitting an 11-year-old girl and 12-year-old boy at an address in the town.
While looking after them, Sutherland showed the pair how to vape before things turned sexual.
Mr McMann told the court: “The accused produced her mobile and asked both children if they used Omegle.
“They replied they had been on it to talk with friends.
“The accused began to communicate with a male, went to the bathroom and returned and showed both children her mobile phone.”
Mum found vaping TikTok video on child’s phone
The children observed a male on a video call who had his penis exposed.
Sutherland also told the children that she had urinated in front of the man in the video and shown him her breasts.
After Sutherland left, the girl did not initially tell her mother about what happened as she was worried because she had been vaping.
However, her mother later found a TikTok video on her phone of her vaping.
Both children were spoken to and the Omegle video came to light – at which point police were contacted.
Omegle, which has seen its popularity skyrocket since the beginning of the pandemic, was recently the subject of a BBC investigation which found some children exposing themselves on the site.
On a separate occasion in April last year, Sutherland was babysitting two boys, aged four and seven, in Stonehaven while their parents were out for the evening.
Babysitter asked children to keep it a secret
The following day, the four-year-old was being assisted by his mum to use the toilet when he made a comment along the lines of: “Do you know some people suck a willy?”
Asked where he got that information from, the four-year-old said “Kirsty’s phone”, adding that it was “a secret”.
The older brother was then asked if he had seen anything on the babysitter’s phone and confirmed he saw “a girl and a man’s willy”.
The children both said Sutherland had asked them to keep it a secret.
One of the children said the video showed a female “licking the man’s willy”, adding: “Girls do it because boys really like it.”
The people in the video were adults and were naked.
The boys’ parents reported the matter to the police.
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