July 2021

Fife paedophile jailed after trying to lure schoolboys to his home to ‘play pool’

A Levenmouth paedophile who tried to lure two schoolboys to his home with the promise of a game of pool has been jailed for two years.

Jordan Stenhouse was already banned from having unsupervised communication with children when he approached the two boys, aged 12 and 13, and asked them if they would return to his home.

Stenhouse, who has been on remand at HMP Perth for almost eight months, appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court where he was sentenced for a string of charges.

The 21-year-old behaved in a disorderly manner when he approached the two schoolboys – who cannot be named for legal reasons – on November 11 2020 and repeatedly asked them to come back to his home.

The boys were waiting for a bus at the Shorehead station in Leven when Stenhouse told them he had a pool table they could play on.

The court heard in April Stenhouse told the boys “everybody knew him” and he had had four children at his house recently.

Stenhouse asked which bus they were catching and repeatedly asked them to go to his home as their route went past it.

He later followed them onto the bus to apologise but when one of the boys called his mother, she contacted police.

On bail at the time, Stenhouse was under court-imposed orders not to have unsupervised contact with any child aged 15 or under, unless with another adult.

Stenhouse also admitted possessing child abuse images a year before the bus station incident.

Between November 5 and November 7 2019, he took or permitted to be taken or made indecent photos or pseudo-photographs of children.

Officers from the Offender Management Unit requested to see the Buckhaven man’s Samsung mobile phone on November 8, a capability granted to them as part of Risk of Sexual Harm Order imposed on Stenhouse in 2018.

His search history included terms such as “young naked boys” and he had 25 images depicting sexual abuse of children between the ages of three and eight.

Stenhouse told the officers he had not downloaded any images but admitted searching for them and found it hard to stop looking.

On another occasion, officers found him with an undisclosed Sony mobile with 61 indecent images on it.

These, mainly of teenage boys, had been accessed via a Russian photo-sharing website commonly used by paedophiles to exchange sexual abuse images.

He admitted possessing the images at an address in Den Walk, Buckhaven.

Sheriff Jamie Gilchrist sentenced Stenhouse to two years behind bars and placed him on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.

He told Stenhouse he runs a risk of spending most of his life in prison should his behaviour continue after his release.

His sentence was backdated to the start of his time on remand.

June 2021

Fife paedophile searched for teenage models

A Fife paedophile claimed his obsession with a teenage models was an “appreciation of beauty”.

Robert Ward told police he was not sexually attracted to children.

However, officers found hundreds of images on a laptop computer, half of which were still accessible.

Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard the 54-year-old broke down and told his partner: “I’ve been looking at things I shouldn’t have”.

The laptop was recovered from the bedroom used by a young girl staying at the address.

Depute fiscal Claire Bremner told the court: “At 8.10am officers executed a search warrant.

“The accused became upset and said: ‘I’m f***ing stupid, I’ve not downloaded anything but I’ve been looking at websites’.

“His wife asked why he was upset and he said: ‘I’ve been looking at things I shouldn’t have’.”

Ms Bremner said at this point officers recovered a laptop from the child’s bedroom.

Ward also admitted to officers the girl had been allowed to use the laptop containing the vile images.

He said he had been searching for teenage models and admitted to using the Tor browser “two or three times a week” and had looked at a modelling website.

Ms Bremner continued: “He said he was infatuated with one model, who appeared to be between 14 and 16 years old.

“He said he knew they (the models) were children.

“He said he was not sexually attracted to children, it was more an appreciation of her beauty.”

She said an examination of the laptop found 1,033 images.

Of those, 533 were accessible to the user.

All of the images depicted females aged between six and 15.

Ward, of Alma Street, Inverkeithing, admitted making indecent photographs of children at an address in Crosshill between December 27 2019 and March 9 last year.

Sentence was deferred for reports and Ward was placed on the sex offenders register in the interim.

July 2021: Handed a supervison order and told to register as a sex offender.

June 2021

Fife paedophile claimed he downloaded child abuse images to catch other perverts