June 2015
Dad’s anguish as son’s killer released
Henry Williamson – Gorebridge
22 Monday May 2017
Posted in Child Killer, Midlothian
≈ Comments Off on Henry Williamson – Gorebridge
Category Archives: Midlothian
Stephen Charters – Galashiels
03 Monday Oct 2016
Posted in Lanarkshire, Midlothian, Scottish Borders
≈ Comments Off on Stephen Charters – Galashiels
September 2016
Borders child sex attacker jailed for five years
A serial sexual predator was jailed today for a campaign of abuse he began as a child and continued into adulthood, targeting girls as young as four.
Stephen Charters carried out a string of sex crimes against victims aged four to eight over two decades.
The former bus driver had denied the offences at an earlier trial, but he was found guilty of five charges of indecent behaviour and two of rape.
Locking him up for five years, a judge told Charters: “These are very serious charges of which you have been convicted, and they were committed over a very long period.”
Lady Clark of Calton said it was plain that his victims had been very seriously affected by their abuse for many years.
She said she accepted that most of the early offending was committed while Charters was a child himself and that the first rape, of an 11-year-old, occurred when he was aged 13 or 14.
The further rape he carried out on a girl aged between six and eight took place when he was “a young adult”, however, she noted.
Lady Clark told him: “I take into account that you are a first offender, that you led a useful and productive life and that there has been no offending for many years.”
Charters, formerly of Wood Street, Galashiels, was convicted of committing sex crimes between 1977 and 1997 in the Borders, at Gorebridge in Midlothian and East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire.
The 51-year-old was convicted of sexual offending from the age of 12, the youngest age for prosecution in Scotland.
He began by molesting a younger girl at a house near Melrose, exposing himself and carrying out sex acts on himself and the child from when she was nine.
He later raped her when she was 11. Charters later abused a second girl at a house in Gorebridge and at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh, before raping her.
On top of that, he made inappropriate sexual remarks to a third girl in East Kilbride and during a car journey. Lady Clark said: “
He is in complete denial about all of this. He does not seem to have any understanding or recognition of his behaviour on the victims.”
Gordon Collins – Bonnyrigg
28 Thursday Apr 2016
Posted in Edinburgh, Midlothian
≈ Comments Off on Gordon Collins – Bonnyrigg
November 2016
Child rapist’s ‘unduly lenient’ prison sentence extended
A council care worker who repeatedly raped one girl and abused three others has had his jail sentence increased to ten years.
Gordon Collins was originally sentenced for six years after committing indecency offences against four underage girls in two Edinburgh children’s units and repeatedly raping one of them.
The Crown successfully appealed against the sentence imposed by the trial judge, Lady Wise, arguing it was “unduly lenient”.
Lord Brodie told the rapist via a video link to Barlinnie prison in Glasgow: “As the trial judge observed in her sentencing remarks, Collins committed an appalling series of offences involving the predatory sexual abuse of four vulnerable teenage girls.
“He was in a position of trust in relation to each complainer and the offences comprised a gross breach of trust.
“Although he had no analogous convictions, he has shown no remorse and continues to deny responsibility for the offences.”
Lord Brodie, who heard the appeal with Lady Clark of Calton and Lord Turnbull, said: “The court is bound to hold that the sentence of six years falls outside the range of sentences reasonably open to the trial judge and is unduly lenient.
“A sentence of ten years’ imprisonment would, in our opinion, be appropriate.”
The appeal judges quashed the original sentence imposed on Collins and substituted the higher prison term on the sex offender.
Collins, 60, was a residential care worker at Northfield Young Persons Unit and St Katherine’s Secure Unit, both in Edinburgh, when he committed the abuse between 1995 and 2006.
Lord Brodie said: “Each of the four victims was in some way troubled or had experienced a difficult upbringing.”
“The evidence disclosed that over a period of some 11 years he groomed each of the victims, gaining their trust and making them feel special before sexually abusing them,” said the senior appeal judge.
Advocate depute Iain McSporran QC told judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh that the jail term was “far below” what it ought to have been for punishment and deterrence.
He maintained “a significantly more substantial custodial sentence was required”.
Mr McSporran said: “The contention of the lord advocate is the sentence, in all the circumstances, does not adequately reflect the gravity of the charges.”
The judges were told victims were vulnerable young people, often from troubled backgrounds, who were entitled to expect sanctuary.
Lord Turnbull said during the hearing: “Many of these children are removed precisely to provide protection.”
Collins, formerly of Wolsey Avenue, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, had singled out victims for treats, outings and attention before exploiting them.
June 2016
Edinburgh care worker jailed for six years over sex abuse
A former council care worker has been jailed for six years for sexually abusing vulnerable children in local authority units.
Gordon Collins was convicted after a police cold case review found evidence he attacked youngsters at residential units in Edinburgh over 11 years.
The 59-year-old, of Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, was convicted following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Judge Lady Wise jailed Collins for six years for the “appalling” crimes.
Collins was earlier found guilty of indecency offences against four underage girls and the repeated rape of one of them.
Collins, an assistant unit manager, told his trial that nothing had come of an inquiry into him instigated by social services in 1997 but he was later suspended after the diary of one of his victim’s was found.
He first began his abuse in 1995 with a 13-year-old girl whom he would kiss, touch and tell she was beautiful as he plied her with cigarettes and sweets.
Another teenager was kissed, bitten on the neck and molested by him over a year during her time at a young persons unit.
A further underage girl was repeatedly raped by him over almost a year after he went into her bedroom at night in one of the units.
In 2006 he cuddled, kissed, bit a 15-year-old on the neck and told her he loved her while molesting the girl at a secure unit for youngsters in Edinburgh.
Advocate depute Jane Farquharson told Collins’ trial: “Rather than care and protect, he has sought to exploit these children.”
Collins was interviewed by police in 2006 after one of the victims had made a complaint to them, but at the time it was considered there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.
Another woman contacted police in 2011 and gave an account of what had happened to her as a resident a city young persons unit. A cold case review was undertaken and police were given a list of all the female residents in the units at the time.
Lady Wise placed Collins on the sex offenders register indefinitely as well as sending him to prison for six years.
Passing sentence, she said: “You have been convicted by the jury of an appalling course of criminal conduct consisting of predatory sexual abuse of four young girls in your care.
“All were extremely vulnerable and you were in a position of authority and trust to each of them.
“You have shown no remorse for your actions and continue to deny responsibility for the offences while your victims continue to live with the consequences.”
April 2016
Ex-council carer Gordon Collins guilty of sexually abusing children
A former council care worker has been found guilty of sexually abusing four young residents at children’s units in Edinburgh.
Gordon Collins, 59, groomed troubled youngsters before molesting them while working in two homes in the capital.
Collins, from Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, had denied seven charges of indecency and one of rape at the High Court in Edinburgh.
He was caught after police opened a cold case investigation.
Judge Lady Wise deferred sentence for the court to obtain reports.
She told him: “Given the serious nature of the offences of which you have been convicted of, I will revoke your bail and remand you in custody.”
The abuse involved four different girls at Northfields Young Persons Unit and St Katherine’s secure unit between 1995 to 2006.
In her closing speech to jurors, prosecution lawyer Jane Farquharson said: “Rather than care and protect, he has sought to exploit these children.
“These are women who have absolutely nothing to gain by concocting lies against the accused.”
During proceedings, the prosecutor said the abuse had occurred in the very places that should have been protecting the child victims who had “very troubled young lives.”
She pointed out each of the victims was not in contact with the others at the time of the offending.
One young woman who had told of how she had been abused by him told the court that she had begun to realise that his behaviour was wrong at the time, but did not tell anyone.
She said: “Who was going to believe me, the troubled kind, against him, a senior member of staff?”
He repeatedly raped one young woman during her time in care.
Defence advocate Matt Jackson challenged the rape victim, now aged 26, that the attacks, which took place between March 2004 and February 2005, did not happen.
But the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, replied: “It simply did happen and he knows that I know.”
Collins will be sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on 31 May.
Jay Bell – Dalkeith
11 Friday Mar 2016
Posted in Midlothian
≈ Comments Off on Jay Bell – Dalkeith
March 2016
Man jailed after leaving baby blind and brain damaged
A Midlothian man who repeatedly threw a nine-week-old baby in the air and shook him, causing him to suffer “catastrophic” injuries, has been jailed for four years.
Jay Bell tossed the tot in the air, causing the baby to hit its head on a wall and a Moses basket before falling to the floor.
He then repeatedly shook the baby until it began to cry.
Jay Bell’s actions on 26 July 2013 caused the infant to suffer brain bleeding, retinal haemorrhages, kidney damage and a broken rib and fractured ankle.
As a result of the brain injury, the child suffers from cerebral palsy and is now registered blind and has difficulty using his limbs
Bell, 23, from Mayfield in Dalkeith, last month admitted to two charges.
He pleaded guilty to culpable and reckless conduct towards the child to his severe injury, permanent impairment and to the danger of his life and a second charge of wilfully neglecting the baby and failing to seek medical attention for him.
Passing sentence at the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday, judge Paul Arthurson QC described the offences as “extremely serious”.
The baby did not receive hospital treatment for about two weeks and Bell took about five months to reveal what had happened to the child when he was in his care.
The court heard the child was eventually admitted to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children on 10 August 2013 and it took Bell until December that year to disclose fully what had happened to the baby.
Had the child gone to hospital straight after suffering the brain injury, medical intervention may have limited the impact of that injury, the judge said.
Mohammed Asghar – Dalkeith
19 Friday Feb 2016
Posted in Midlothian
≈ Comments Off on Mohammed Asghar – Dalkeith
November 2010
Newsagent jailed for assaulting 11-year-old girl
A NEWSAGENT assaulted an 11-year old girl in his shop 16 years after being jailed for sexual offences against children he employed to deliver papers.
Mohammed Asghar, 56, told his 11-year-old victim: “I am a therapist and that’s what therapists do”.
Asghar, a prisoner in Saughton, had pled guilty previously at Edinburgh Sheriff Court to assaulting the girl on June 17 this year in his shop, Moons Newsagents in Mayfield Place, Dalkeith.
Sentence was deferred until today for reports.
Asghar was jailed for five years at the High Court in Edinburgh in 1994 for offences involving three girls and a boy, aged between 10 and 15 years, in his shop in Leith.
The 11-year old and a nine year old friend had gone into the shop to buy sweets.
The 11-year old asked for a tissue as her hands were dirty with bird droppings. Asghar asked the girls to go into the back shop.
He then locked the front door and closed the window shutters. Going out to his car he locked the girls inside. After a short while he returned and asked the nine-year old to go into the front shop.
The 11-year old was sitting in a chair and Asghar wet a tissue and began rubbing her legs with it and moving his hands under her shorts.
When the girl asked what he was doing, he replied: “I am a therapist and that’s what therapists do”.
He then lifted up her top, groped and kissed her.
The girl became scared and then her friend shouted that she had to go home as she had a school project to complete. Asghar opened the door and shutters, gave the 11-year old a magazine and told her not to tell her mother.
Defence solicitor, John Scott, told Sheriff Isabella McColl that in some cases there was an element of denial by an accused, but Asghar had co-operated fully in the compilation of the reports. The reports said there was work that could be done with him and suggested his taking part in the Community Sex Offenders Group programme for a period of two years.
Mr Scott added: “It is worth noting in this situation that the complainer came into his shop, obviously for entirely innocent purposes. It is not the case that the accused came out looking for a child or grooming them”.
Sheriff McColl said she had to take regard of Asghar’s previous conviction and that in this case there had been an element of trust involved. She highlighted his locking the doors so that the girls could not leave and drawing the blinds so that others could not see what was happening.
She imposed an extended sentence of four years and nine months, with a custodial element of one year and nine months and three years supervision.
You must be logged in to post a comment.