A north-east paedophile has been jailed after police caught him with a secret phone hidden under his garden shed.
Robert Strachan, 46, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted concealing the phone from police.
Officers found he had installed apps Grindr and Snapchat, in breach of a court order.
Strachan was jailed in 2021 after he used Grindr to seek out and groom victims as young as 11.
Sheriff Craig Findlater told Strachan that no other sentence was appropriate in his case and jailed him for more than two years.
Neighbours saw Strachan ‘acting strangely’
Fiscal depute Calum Gordon told the court that, due to his previous convictions, Strachan was subject to the notification requirements and, therefore was not allowed to access electronic equipment or the internet.
After his release from prison in October last year, Strachan visited Inverurie Police Station on a number of occasions to update his details but at no point stated that he had bought an electronic device or registered any new usernames online.
On November 18 last year, Strachan’s neighbours saw him acting strangely near a shed and placing something underneath it.
They went over to investigate and found a mobile phone with a charger in a clear plastic bag.
Police arrived and later captured Strachan on camera as he walked up to the shed and appeared to look for something underneath it.
The phone was analysed, and usernames for Snapchat and Grindr that had not been disclosed to police were found on it.
It was found that Strachan had been using Snapchat – an app that sends pictures and videos that become inaccessible after being viewed – since November 1.
He had been using Grindr app – mainly a dating app for homosexual men – since November 16.
In the dock, Strachan pleaded guilty two charges of failing to comply with the notification requirements of the sex offenders register.
‘Only one sentence’
Defence solicitor Sam Milligan told the court: “There’s only one sentence the court will be looking upon.
“My client has been looking to resolve this case sooner rather than later and pled guilty as early as was possible.”
Sheriff Findlater told Strachan: “There’s only one sentence that’s appropriate in this case for someone who has been in breach of the notification requirements as you have.
“You know the importance of them to these courts.”
Sheriff Findlater jailed Strachan, whose address was given as HMP Grampian, for 30 months.
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