August 2017

Pervert sexually abused young cousin more than 2000 times

A vulnerable mum has told how her cousin sexually abused her more than 2000 times from when she was just nine years old.

Patricia, who has learning difficulties, said she had “no idea” that John Andrew Slater was using her disability to take advantage of her.

She wasn’t allowed to leave the house without a relative but Slater started taking her to various locations across Midlothian to sexually assault and abuse her.

Patricia, now 51, of Rosewell, said: “He would tell me that he loved me – I was his soul mate and his favourite.

“He told me when I was older, we would be together.

“I had learning difficulties and didn’t have many friends. I’d been bullied and I was lonely.

“I know now that and he used that to his advantage.

“I was only allowed out the house with a family member in case I got picked on. My family trusted him. I didn’t know what he was doing was wrong.”

Slater forced Patricia to carry out sex acts on him and sexually abused her. She claims he also raped her, although this was never proved.

Patricia said that during her seven-year ordeal, Slater targeted her up to four times a week.

She added: “I tried to calculate the number of times he abused me and it works out at least 2080 – but that is being generous to him because it was more.

“I have emotional, mental and physical scars of the abuse. The physical scars remind me every single day what he did to me.”

Slater, now 55 and known as Jock, began abusing Patricia in June 1975.

The abuse lasted until 1982, when she bravely confided in her parents – but they kept the crime secret rather than contact the police.

Patricia said: “After I told my parents, I wasn’t allowed to go out with him any more.

We just kept it hidden in the family.

“That’s what people did in those days. I had to face him at family gatherings and I never even told my husband, who I was married to for 13 years.

“Slater claims now to have had a heart attack and lost his memory but that’s not true.

“A few years ago, I was at a gala day with my mum. He told her he had lost his memory.

“But then he came up and whispered in my ear, ‘But I remember what I did to you.’”

Slater, of Bonnyrigg, went on to target a second victim, then aged 14, between October 1986 and October 1987 in theEdinburgh area.

But in 2015, Patricia finally broke her 40-year silence and revealed the harrowing abuse she had suffered to police.

Patricia said: “I told the officer, ‘I was raped and abused as a child.’

“The officer was so supportive of me. He really helped me to explain what happened.

“He later told me it was the worst case of abuse he had ever heard of.”

Slater – who Patricia says worked as a care assistant for vulnerable young adults – denied the abuse, forcing her to give evidence in court via video link.

Following his trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Slater was convicted of sexual assault charges. Earlier this month, he was jailed for two years.

Sentencing him, Sheriff Thomas Welsh QC said: “You must have known what you were doing was wrong.

“The only sentence I can impose in this case is one of custody.”

Slater was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and given a 10-year harassment order preventing him from contacting Patricia, who wrote a heart-rending letter to the court explaining the horror she had endured.

She said: “For more than 40 years, I have been having boiling hot baths and scrubbing my skin until it is red raw to try to get him from under my skin.

“I’ll never forget what he did to me. It will take a long time for me to heal but I finally feel I have my life back.

July 2016

Penicuik man sent to prison for four years

A former director of a community centre and day nursery in Penicuik was jailed for four years at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last week.

Thirty-seven year old Simon Carroll of Eastfield Farm Road, Penicuik, was also placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for an indefinite period for sexually abusing two young boys when he was a teenager.

In court on Thursday, Sheriff Kenneth Maciver QC at Edinburgh Sheriff Court said: “You were found guilty of serious sexual crimes against two boys of around seven and eight years of age when you were in a position of trust.

“The very age of the boys and the nature of the sexual acts place this case in a category and gravity at the very upper limit of it being dealt with in the Sheriff Court as opposed to the High Court.”

Sheriff Maciver added that Carroll’s actions on the boys had had a lasting psychological impact on them.

“The combination of factors make this a case where the only appropriate disposal calls for a custodial sentence of some length.” Carroll was visibly shocked as sentence was passed.

Carroll had been found guilty after a two-day trial last month of lewd and libidinous practices against one of the boys between 1993 and 1995 and between 1997 and 2001 with the other. Carroll was aged between 14 and 22 years during that period.

September 2017

Teenager ‘told girls they could make money carrying out sex acts’

A pervert, who contacted two young girls telling them they could make lots of money by carrying out sexual acts, as part of a business he had set up, has been placed under supervision on a Community Payback Order for three years.

Nineteen-year old Calum Sawyers of Rullion Road, Penicuik, had pled guilty previously at Edinburgh Sheriff Court to repeatedly sending indecent messages and images to a 14-year old girl and 15 year old girl, both of whom lived in England.

The offences occurred between December 1, 2015, when he was 17, and March 8, 2016.

He also admitted being in possession of indecent images of children.

Sentence was deferred until today for reports.

Sheriff Frank Crowe had heard that two separate investigations were going on at the same time. Police in England were looking into what had been reported about the girls, while police in Scotland were investigating intelligence about Sawyers having indecent images in his home.

In early February 2015, the 14-year old girl told friends she had been receiving messages from Sawyers asking her to carry out sexual acts for money as part of a business he had set up.

This had been relayed to a teacher, who contacted the police.

The girl told them that Sawyers said what this involved was her meeting with males and engaging in sexual acts for money. The girl was told she could make a lot of money this way.

The rate for normal sex was £1000 an hour, £5000 for “torture play”, £10,000 for “slashing and cutting” and £50,000 for sex with animals.

The second girl was contacted in February 2016 when she was asked to send him sexual images of herself.

She was told she was the youngest person he had working for him. His mobile phones were found to have still and movie sexual images of children aged between five and 14.

Sheriff Crowe told Sawyers that the offences had been serious, but he was taking into account his youth and some of the psychological issues in his make-up.

He was not to communicate with children under the age of 17 without the permission of his supervising officer and any communication equipment he had could be investigated at any time by police or social workers. He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for three years.

June 2017

Pervert set up sex business by enticing schoolgirls to meet up with fellow paedophiles

A perverted teenager who tried to set up a sex business by enticing schoolgirls to meet up with fellow paedophiles is facing jail.

Calum Sawyers, from Penicuik, Midlothian, contacted a 14-year-old girl online in a bid to get her to have sex with adult males in exchange for thousands of pounds.

Sawyers told the youngster, who lives in Essex, she would receive up to £50,000 depending on what sex acts she agreed to carry out.

The depraved 19-year-old offered her the cash payments to engage in sexual acts with adults and told her she could earn more if she agreed to be filmed having sex with animals.

Sawyers, a law student, also contacted a 15-year-old schoolgirl, from Newcastle, through Snapchat and offered her £150 for sex.

He sent the girl pictures of himself and a video depicting him receiving oral sex from an unknown woman.

His online chats were uncovered after the 14-year-old told school pals about the contact and the chats with the 15-year-old girl were discovered after police seized his mobile phone.

And during police investigations into Sawyers activities he also had computer equipment seized which revealed he had downloaded disgusting child sexual abuse images and videos showing the rape and torture of children

Some of the images were at the worst end of the spectrum and featured children performing solo sex acts and girls between eight and ten being orally raped by an adult male.

Sawyers admitted four sex offence charges committed between December 2015 and March last year when he appeared in the dock at at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today.

Prosecutor Aidan Higgins told the court Sawyers contacted the 14-year-old Essex girl in a bid to get her to go “into business together” by selling her body.

Mr Higgins said: “This all came to light in early February last year after the 14-year-old girl told friends she was receiving messages from the accused requesting her too carry out sexual acts for money.

“This was part of a business opportunity he said he had set up. He proposed they go into business together and that would involve her meeting males and engaging in sexual acts for money.

“He told her she could make a lot of money this way and there were detailed messages about the sorts of things involved.”

Mr Higgins added Sawyers had told the girl she would be paid £1000 for “normal sex” and between £3000 and £10,000 for kinkier acts featuring urine and torture.

The fiscal said depraved Sawyers also offered the schoolgirl £25,000 to be involved in “kiddy play” sessions and around £50,000 for sex acts involving animals.

After she had told pals about Sawyers teachers at her school soon found out about the online sex chats and contacted police.

The contact with the 15-year-old girl was uncovered after police seized two mobile phones from Sawyers and when traced she told police she had been contacted by the pervert in February last year.

She said he had asked her for “topless pictures” of herself and had sent her indecent pics of him with a woman.

The fiscal added the girl then “saw the danger” of their online conversations and stopped all contact with him.

Sheriff Frank Crowe placed the pervert teenager on the sex offenders register for a time still to be determined and deferred full sentence to next month.

Sawyers pleaded guilty to indecently communicating with the 14-year-old girl and sending her indecent images between December 1, 2015 and January 31 last year.

He also admitted to a similar charge with the 15-year-old girl between March 5 and 8, 2016.

The teenager pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children on March 16 last year, and to making indecent images at his home address between March 4 and 16 last year.

May 2017

Vile child sex attacker who got girl pregnant TWICE has been jailed again for spying on primary schoolgirls

A CHILD sex attacker jailed for getting a teenager pregnant twice has been locked up again after he spied on young girls on their way to primary school.

Peter Staszek, 64, left his sheltered housing complex every morning to chat with the ten-year-old girls as they innocently made their way to classes in Dalkeith, Midlothian.

Pervert Staszek would often speak to the youngsters on the street and on one occasion told one of the girls she “looked gorgeous” and that she must have “a hot date”.

Following the disturbing comment, the terrified school pupil rushed to tell her teacher what the sex beast had said to her and the police were soon called in.

Staszek was caged for six years in 1995 after he admitted unlawful sex with a 14-year-old girl who was then forced to give birth to a still born child before leaving the tot’s body in a Dalkeith park.

A police appeal for the mothers to come forward proved fruitless and the horrific crime was only uncovered after the girl fell pregnant for a second time by Staszek and she underwent an abortion.

Subsequent DNA result then showed a match with the still born baby and Staszek was arrested.

He was also jailed in 2002 for indecency charges and was sentenced to a 30-month sentence in 2011 after he was caught chatting to a nine-year-old girl and a 13-year-old girl while visiting friends

The paedophile was also handed a ten-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) in 2013 banning him from approaching or speaking to children.

Now he is back behind bars after admitting to breaching the SOPO by communicating with four young girls at Old Edinburgh Road, Dalkeith, Midlothian, between August 1 last year and March 2 this year.

Yesterday, Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told Staszek was spotted “every morning” standing on the street near to a primary school where he would say “good morning” to the Primary 7 pupils.

Fiscal depute Kim Schofield said: “On March 1 [this year] one of the girls was walking to school with friends and the accused known to all of them would often say “hello” to them.

“The accused walked towards them and he waited and stared at them and said ‘good morning’ to them. As one of the girls passed the accused said ‘you look gorgeous as usual – have you got a hot date?

“The girl was scared by that comment and told a teacher when she arrived at school. The teacher said the girl was “visibly upset” and her mother was called in.”

The girl then told her mother Staszek spoke to her and her pals “most mornings” and the worried mum called in the police.

Following his arrest for breaking the SOPO Staszek was then identified by all the girls during a police identity parade.

Sheriff Norman McFadyen – who jailed the pervert for three years – said: “This was a breach of a bail order and you already have a significant record for breaching orders due to your predilection for children.”