May 2019

High-risk sex offender took youngsters on road trip

A high-risk sex offender who had been banned from being in the company of any boy under 16 went on a road trip with youngsters in February.

Scott Murray, described as an Inverness prisoner, was the subject of a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order which was granted at Inverness on July 20, 2015.

Inverness Sheriff Court was told yesterday that he has breached that order several times.

Sheriff Margaret Neilson also heard that in March 2017 he was sentenced to a 21-month jail sentence for looking at boys in a north leisure centre, and then released early.

Murray’s latest breach occurred between October 1 last year and February 5 this year.

Fiscal depute Robert Weir said Murray met with a teenager in Inverness on February 5 in his blue Astra car at about noon.

The teenager was reported missing to the police by his mother later that evening after he failed to attend school.

Officers were told by her that she believed him to be in the company of a man called Scott in Dundee.

Police suspected Murray was involved and mobile patrols were alerted to keep a look out for his car.

It was seen later that evening heading towards Inverness. Police stopped it and inside were three teenagers.

Mr Weir said subsequent investigations revealed that 33-year-old Murray had taken the boy to Dundee and had been in regular contact with him since the beginning of October the previous year.

They met regularly, and he would be taken by Murray to fast food restaurants, another location in the Highlands and Dundee.

The boy had also stayed at Murray’s then home in Telford Street.

Police also discovered that a second boy, of primary school age, had also met Murray and had been lured into his car to be supplied with food and drink, Mr Weir added.

Defence solicitor Willie Young said his client became friendly with several people at the Inverness meeting place, mostly over the age of 16 – but in the group were the young teenagers.

“That group attended his home and they took trips to Dundee to go to the casino.”

Sheriff Neilson jailed Murray for 18 months, backdated to February 6.

March 2017

Convicted sex offender walked into Inverness school and peeked in the showers… Now he’s been locked up

scott-murray

A high risk sex offender banned from approaching boys or using leisure centres has been jailed for 21 months after he walked into a shower block full of children at an Inverness school.

Scott Murray was banned from entering any swimming pool or leisure centre for 10 years and contacting or communicating with any male child under the age of 16 in 2015.

But Inverness Sheriff Court was told that the 31-year-old, described as an Inverness prisoner, flouted the court order on November 22 to enter showers being used by around two dozen boys on Charleston Community Campus.

Sheriff Margaret Neilson said it was the seventh time that Murray had been convicted of a similar offence.

Sentence was deferred to yesterday for a background report in which Murray tried to change his story.

His lawyer Willie Young said the plea was ‘appropriately tendered’ but that Murray’s position was that his curiosity was aroused by music and he didn’t realise what the building was used for.

He added: “It should have been apparent to him that he shouldn’t have been there.”

The court heard that one of the youths reported Murray’s suspicious activity to a teacher.

Murray was not found, but when police checked CCTV coverage of the facility, they identified the sex offender.

In May 2012, Murray was jailed for 18 months for disobeying a similar court order. He admitted that previous conviction plus a long list of other offences.

Fiscal depute Michelle Molley told Sheriff Margaret Neilson that Murray was arrested shortly after being discovered and had spent 77 days in custody.

The court heard that Murray entered the community centre during school hours.

Ms Molley said: “He entered the physical education department and told a child he was looking for the male changing rooms.

“When he entered them, there were 24 schoolboys changing. He then made his way to the shower facilities and was seen to be ‘peeking’ in before turning around and leaving.

“One pupil was so concerned at his conduct that he alerted a teacher who carried out a search without success. Police were then immediately notified.”

May 2012

Carrbridge pool visit sex offender jailed

A registered sex offender has been jailed for 18 months after staff at a Carrbridge holiday resort noticed a “strange man” behaving in an odd way.

Scott Murray breached a court order by entering Lochanhully Woodland Club on the outskirts of the village on repeated occasions.

Sheriff Margaret Neilson was told Grantown man Murray felt the order which bans him from entering such premises was unnecessary and unreasonable.

But the sheriff told him he had deliberately breached a court order and it was not for him to decide whether it was appropriate or not.

Twenty-six-year-old Murray, described as a prisoner at Inverness, was subject to a Sex Offenders Prevention order granted at Inverness Sheriff Court on May 19, 2010.

It prohibited him from entering swimming pools, gymnasiums or leisure centres.

But on repeated occasions between December 4, last year, and January 6, this year, he visited the swimming pool and leisure centre at the resort.

Depute Fiscal David Bernard said Murray signed into the club, which is owned by Macdonald Hotels and Resorts, on nine occasions and used the pool twice.

A receptionist in her statement said she had noticed a ‘strange man’ displaying rather ‘odd’ behaviour when he visited the holiday park.

A lifeguard who had heard rumours that Murray was subject to a restriction order saw him at the pool and the police were alerted.

“Officers formed the opinion it was to engage with persons under 16 but the Crown accept his mere presence in the pool was what breached the Sexual Offences Prevention order,” the fiscal added.

Solicitor William Young said there were avenues for him to challenge the order. But social work reports indicated Murray resented the restriction placed on him and feels they are “unnecessary and inappropriate”.

Mr Young said: “In my submission there is nothing sinister in his actions. The Crown is not suggesting this. He had gone there to swim. It was the winter and he wanted to keep fit. No one complained about his conduct.

“He used to swim when he was a young man at school. He took a chance and was fully aware of the terms of the order he was breaching.”