January 2017

Paedophile back behind bars for breaching a sexual offences prevention order

A former milkman who has been jailed twice before for child sexual abuse related offences is back behind bars for breaching a sexual offences prevention order.

Trevor Buchan, who has changed his name to Paul Thomas, was banned from having contact with children for longer than three minutes.

But the 58-year-old was repeatedly babysitting a three-year-old girl at his flat in Trowbridge, Swindon Crown Court was told.

And while he was with the youngster outside the flats he accepted he had ‘inappropriate thoughts’.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, said neighbours alerted police to what they thought was going on in November last year.

She said it was claimed that the little girl’s mum was struggling to look after her daughter and the defendant was helping her out.

Officers spoke to him and he initially denied he had any contact with the child apart from passing as a neighbour.

And the girl’s mum also said he had not been looking after her but when she realised his past she accepted that he had repeatedly helped her out.

She said he had been looking after the girl during the day because she had been hung over and was also with her in the communal gardens to the flats.

When he was arrested the defendant said that he had not breached the order, saying he had never been with the child alone.

He suggested that the order banned him from having unsupervised contact, but he later admitted what he had done.

Thomas, of Century Court, Trowbridge, pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching a sexual offences prevention order.

He was jailed for five years at Bristol Crown Court in 2011 after admitting molesting a young girl and breaching the order.

In 2009 he was put on a community order, with the sexual offences prevention order, for possessing indecent images of children.

And he also received a 27-month jail term in 1999 for sexually abusing another child between 1985 and 1992.

Tony Bignall, defending, said his client accepted he was facing jail for what he had done adding that he still had ‘sexual thoughts about children’ in the back of his mind.

Jailing him for 32 months Judge Tim Mousley QC said: “The wording of that order was crystal clear.

“I don’t accept for a minute that it didn’t exclude you from unsupervised contact with children.

“It seems you spent three to four hours in contact with that little girl during which you took her to a communal garden.

“But you accept that when you were with that girl you had inappropriate thoughts. You attempt to explain that by saying that is why you went to the communal garden as it is where you knew other people would be. I am sceptical about that having read about you.”

February 2009

‘Vile’ milkman escapes jail over child sexual abuse images

A milkman from Bath who admitted he had a sexual interest in children after he was caught with hundreds of indecent pictures at his home was today described by a judge as one of the “vilest perverts” he had seen for a long time.

Trevor Buchan, who had previous convictions for committing acts of gross indecency with a child, said he was turned on by children aged seven and over.

His continued perversion came to light when authorities in the United States told British police the defendant may have been buying indecent movies and pictures of children from the internet.

When police swooped on the 50-year-old’s former home in Fox Hill, they seized a photo album, DVDs, papers and computer hardware containing 602 indecent images of children aged three to their early teens.

Buchan, who now lives in Sedgemoor Road, Foxhill, later pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing indecent images of a child and one charge of making indecent photos or pseudo photos of a child.

He was told he could have been given a sentence for public protection, of life in prison, by Judge Julian Lambert at Bristol Crown Court.

But instead he was given a three-year community order so that he can attend a sex offender programme for treatment.

He will be supervised by the Probation Service for three years and will be on the Sex Offenders’ Register for the next five years.

Buchan was also disqualified from working with children for life and subjected to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order stopping him from coming into contact with children under 16.

Richard Posner, prosecuting, said police seized 602 indecent images from the Fox Hill home on September 2 last year after information was received from US authorities that the defendant may have been buying indecent images of children from the internet.

He said the defendant was arrested and taken to Bath Police Station while officers carried away a wedding album containing indecent pictures of children, a computer hard drive and tower, DVDs and printed sheets of paper.

Mr Posner told the court: “With regards to the age of the children they appear to be as young as three and no older than early teens.

“There were a number of naturist magazines recovered not exclusively of pre-pubescent children.

“The images in the wedding album he (Buchan) described as ‘things of beauty’ and said he had nowhere else to put them.

“Images in a briefcase he also described as ‘things of beauty’.

“The defendant was candid in his admissions that he had a sexual interest in children and said he would not go after them.

“He said children of age seven and over turned him on.”

He said the defendant had previous convictions dating back to his youth for dishonesty and was dealt with for indecent exposure in 1974.

In March 1999 he was jailed for 27 months for three offences of gross indecency with a child in the 1980s.

The court also heard that the latest police investigation revealed Buchan had been sponsoring the education of two young girls in Guatemala and was receiving photographs and letters from them.

Jennifer Tallentire, defending, said her client had been released from his 27-month prison sentence in 2000 and shortly afterwards was divorced from his wife and had lived a solitary life since.

She said he started looking at indecent images of children on his computer in 2007 and was frank with police about what he had done.

Sentencing Buchan, Judge Julian Lambert said: “I have considered very carefully this morning whether or not it was my duty to imprison you for public protection. That’s a euphemism for life in prison.

“You pose a risk to young people and I’m very, very anxious about you. I do however consider that your risk can be managed by the Probation Service and police and that risk can be contained in the community by you completing the Thames Valley Sex Offender Programme.

“You are one of the vilest perverts I have had the misfortune to see in a very long time. Sadly the previous custodial sentence did not treat the root cause of your perversion and distorted thinking.

“Looking at images of little tiny children being seriously abused is a serious act of abuse itself because if those with your perverted thinking did not view those images it would not cause their production.

“The programme you will take will cause you to see just how wicked your viewing of those images is.”