The former head coach of an Inverness American football club had teenage boys pose for naked photos and videos under the guise of making a sex education programme.
Robert ‘Robbie’ Paulin, who coached the Highland Wildcats team, assured his two victims that the footage would be used in a “matter of fact” educational film for schools and paid them to take part.
After a jury at Inverness Sheriff Court returned guilty verdicts, Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald branded the 39-year-old “very dangerous” and said he displayed “a level of grooming and manipulation that I have rarely seen”.
One of his victims, aged 17, posed naked for the indecent photographs – some of which Paulin himself took.
These included photographs of his victim’s penis and video of the teenager performing a solo sex act.
Paulin also had a second boy, aged 15, pose naked while he took indecent images, including photographs of his penis, and attempted to take video of him performing a solo sex act.
The sports coach – who has led outreach sessions in schools across the Highlands – was found guilty of two charges of arranging or facilitating the involvement in pornography of a person aged under 18 between 2012 and 2014.
Teenagers were paid for indecent images
The charges detail how the teenagers participated in exchange for payment – “allegedly by a third party”.
Paulin had denied any wrongdoing during a four-day trial and was acquitted of three further sex charges.
A charge that he directed sexual verbal communications to the first complainer was found not to be proven.
Also not proven were charges that he engaged in sexual activity with or towards the second complainer when he was aged between 13 and 16 and intentionally caused the same child to participate in sexual activity.
The trial heard from Paulin’s two victims – now in their 20s – and they described becoming close to the older man before the crimes took place between 2012 and 2014.
Email asked for models
Jurors were shown images and emails purporting to be from a woman involved in the production of the sex education project – some of which referenced “Robbie” or appeared to have been copied to his email.
The correspondence asked the teenager to pose naked and provide video of himself performing a solo sex act in return for payment.
The emails claimed the images would be used in a “matter of fact” educational programme.
The witness told the court: “I did talk to Robbie about the project.”
He said he provided the requested footage to Paulin and received payments.
In evidence led by fiscal depute Susan Love, the second complainer told the court Paulin approached him about featuring in educational material as a “model”.
He said: “Robbie actually came up to me and said that a woman emailed him about sex education throughout Europe and was wondering if he had any models.
“It was to go around schools and show them sex education and show people what puberty is like – it was just me taking three photos and doing one video.”
He added: “The pictures would be a front-facing one of me fully naked and then two side profiles of me fully naked.
“The video was meant to be of me masturbating in front of the camera naked.”
The witness confirmed to the court that he would have been 15 at the time.
Sports coach claims victims made it up
He said Paulin took the photographs and also set up a camera and tripod for the teenager to record the video alone.
“I couldn’t go through with it,” he said.
Giving evidence in his own defence, Paulin claimed both victims were lying.
He also denied putting the 17-year-old in touch with the woman in the emails.
Asked what he would have done if one of the teens had spoken to him about the arrangement, he said: “I would be concerned, and I would tell him not to do it.”
He said he had not seen naked photographs or video of either teenager.
He repeatedly denied all of the conduct described by his accusers and, under cross-examination, claimed that both had “grievances” against him.
He told the fiscal depute: “There was grievances” and said: “There’s more to it than that.”
In her closing speech to the jury, Ms Love said: “This is clearly porn.”
She told the jury: “These were children who needed money and trusted the accused.
“They trusted him when he said it wasn’t porn, it was for education purposes.”
Defence advocate Kelly Duling pointed to the fact that Paulin had worked with a number of young people “in the thousands” over a 17-year period and had not received a single complaint “until now”.
Grooming and manipulation
She asked the jury to consider the possibility of a “catfish” or “hacker” being the reason her client had no knowledge of the emails.
Jurors took around three-and-a-half hours to find Paulin guilty of both of the charges of arranging or facilitating the involvement in pornography of a person aged under 18.
The court heard that Paulin, of Canal Road, Inverness, has no previous convictions, leading Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald to call for presentencing reports, including an assessment for the Moving Forward 2 Change programme for sexual offenders.
She was also handed a victim impact statement from one of the complainers in the case.
Ms Duling reserved her comments in mitigation for the next calling of the case and asked that her client’s bail be continued.
Sheriff MacDonald agreed but told Paulin: “I consider these offences very serious.”
She went on to say they displayed “a level of grooming and manipulation that I have rarely seen”.
.She said she considered “anyone who committed this type of offence to be very dangerous” and placed Paulin on the sex offenders register with immediate effect – the eventual length of registration to be determined at sentencing.