Category Archives: Ayrshire

Alfred Brown – Largs

26 Wednesday Aug 2020

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August 2020

Largs musician jailed after admitting sickening child sex offences

A musician who played in a popular local band has been jailed after pleading guilty to abusing and filming a seven-year-old child at an address in Largs.

Alfred Brown, 62, pleaded guilty to the sickening crime against the young girl, as well as having a stash of sickening indecent images of a child.

The offences are said to have spanned a 16-year period.

Brown was back in the dock at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court this week for sentencing after pleading guilty to two of four charges just before he was due to stand trial before a jury.

Not guilty pleas to two other charges libelled by the Crown were accepted by prosecutors.

The pervert featured in the pages of the News back in 2011 after joining band ‘The Sharps’. They group performed on the local music scene during 2011 and 2012 and also recorded a CD album which they sold at gigs in bars and pubs around Ayrshire.

The offender was known as ‘Alfie Brown’ in the group.

The court heard how Brown had used filming equipment to record his young victim and repeatedly compelled her to expose her underwear to him at a location in Largs.

He also captured footage of the primary school pupil while she was asleep and while he indecently touched her.

The offence is said to have taken place on a date between January 2003 and November 2010.

Brown also admitted on various occasions between 1 January 2003 and 4 March 2019, at his then home address in Lindsay Crescent in Largs, having in his possession indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child contrary to the Civic Government Scotland Act 1982.

A not guilty plea to making, or allowing such images to be made, was accepted by the Crown.

Depraved Brown pleaded guilty to lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour and was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

He was also imprisoned for 17 months, backdated to 12 March when he was first remanded in custody. Brown was also been placed on a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for five years.

Barry Tidswell – Ardrossan

26 Wednesday Aug 2020

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August 2020

Creep caught in Irvine paedophile sting on Facebook dodges jail

A pervert who sent sexual messages to what he thought were girls aged 12 and 14 has dodged jail after being confronted by paedophile hunters in a widely-shared online sting.

Barry Tidswell, 39, was placed on supervision for two years – with no unpaid work – and ordered to receive treatment when he returned to the dock last week 

He previously pled guilty back in March to causing a young child to look at a sexual image and sexually communicating with a young child after finding himself stung and broadcast on Facebook when he thought he was going to meet the girl.

Tidswell also admitted a second charge of causing a person pretending to be a young child to receive a sexual communication at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court .

Sick Tidswell, of Churchill Drive, Ardrossan, was confronted by several members of the Child Protectors Scotland group

He was arrested outside Irvine’s Rivergate, on Sunday, June 2, last year.

The Procurator Fiscal told how both recipients of the messages were actually members of the group, who he met through the Skout social media app between May 11 and June 1 last year.

Tidswell told the first recipient, who he believed to be 12, he loved her and asked her to be his girlfriend.

He sent her an indecent image and an obscene message, to which the recipient replied she was 12, with Tidswell saying he would be ‘careful’.

The court heard Tidswell also attempted to video call her but the calls were not accepted.

In the same period he spoke to a male member of Child Protectors Scotland who told him ‘she’ was 14.

Tidswell asked if she had a boyfriend, then asked if she was looking for one when he said no, and said she looked ‘beautiful’ in her photos. The prosecutor said the sting took place on June 2 between members of the group and Tidswell.

When asked in a police interview if he had sent the messages Tidswell replied ‘possibly’.

Sheriff Alistair Watson called the offences ‘very serious’ and Tidswell’s behaviour ‘reprehensible’ and ‘disgusting’.

He added that it didn’t matter if he wasn’t actually speaking to children as ‘you didn’t know that’.

He deferred sentence for criminal justice social work reports and added him to the Sex Offender’s Register.

When Tidswell eventually returned to court after five months amid delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he received a community payback order with supervision for two years and three months and will remain on the Sex Offender’s Register for the same period.

Tidswell was also ordered to join the Moving Forward and Making Changes programme which aims to address offenders’ sexual thoughts towards children.

Cameron MacKenzie – Kilwinning

07 Tuesday Jul 2020

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Kilwinning teacher faces jail after sexually assaulting pupils during lesson

A schoolteacher is facing jail after being found guilty of sexually assaulting pupils during a lesson.

Cameron MacKenzie was found guilty of two charges of sexual assault against two first year pupils at a Three Towns School between February and March last year.

The jury heard from eight children who said they saw trainee teacher MacKenzie act inappropriately with female pupils during lessons.

One girl broke down in tears when she told the court she had been “left damaged” by MacKenzie’s actions which occurred when she was just 12-years-old.

The girl, now 14, told the jury that on one occasion MacKenzie had walked up to the side of her desk and put his hand in front of her face, saying “His hand didn’t touch my face, but it was uncomfortably close. I didn’t like it. It made me uncomfortable.”

The child also told the court MacKenzie’s lips had ‘grazed her ear’ when he bent down to whisper to her during a different lesson.

Under cross-examination the child became upset again and sobbed as MacKenzie’s defense lawyer, Dale Hughes, called her a liar.

Mr Hughes told the girl: “All these incidents that you have said he touched you or grazed your ear, they are not true, you just don’t like Mr MacKenzie.”

Sobbing, the girl replied: “That’s not true, I would not go out my way to ruin someone ‘s life.

“I’m not making it up, this has damaged me.”

After composing herself, Sheriff Shirley Foran asked the girl to explain what she meant and she added: “This has changed me as a person because of the stress I’ve been put through.

“It took quite a lot for me to speak about it because I’m scared and I don’t want to be accused of lying.”

The court heard MacKenzie had groped the leg of one 13-year-old girl and told her that her “body was more developed than other girls her age” during his probationary year at the school.

MacKenzie also warned her she would get stomach cramps and “be more moody” while she had her period and said he knew this because he had “been through it with his own daughter”.

The jury heard from a child who said had been “lenient” towards girls and claimed “girls got more privileges than boys” in his classroom.

However MacKenzie denied the charges and said that all eight children had conspired against him because they “took slight umbrage to being disciplined”.

However the jury did not agree with him and found MacKenzie guilty of two charges of sexual assault.

The jury returned a verdict of not proven on a third charge.

MacKenzie will have to sign on to the Sex Offender’s Register in the next three days and will return to court in October for sentencing.

Michael Reid – Kilwinning

10 Friday Apr 2020

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April 2020

Dad blasts tagged sex offender’s sentence after COVID-19 lockdown

A father of a girl who saw a man performing a sex act on a number 11 bus says he’s been let off as ‘everybody is on a tag just now’.

Michael Reid, 35, previously admitted pleasuring himself in front of two 12-year-olds girls while on the top-deck at the back of the Number 11 bus with a bottle of drink in his other hand last year.

Reid, of Montgomerie Terrace, Kilwinning, was told to sign the Sex Offender’s Register and ordered to stay at home from 7pm-7am after the court heard he was remorseful.

The disgusted dad of one of the girls said he’s ‘basically getting away with it’ due to the coronavirus lockdown – announced the evening after Reid was sentenced on Monday, March 23.

He said: “I think the sentence is a bit ridiculous, especially since everybody has got to stay in the house anyway. A tag seems a bit irrelevant in the current situation.

“For a guy to have done that in front of two young lassies on a bus, the guy is basically getting away with it – being on a register is a bit of a cop out. He’s not even got any community work. I’m a bit disgusted, everybody is on a tag just now.

“Doing that in front of two young girls should be considered quite serious especially when you see what other people get. I think he should have got the jail – I don’t expect the guy to get five years or something but you expect him to do some kind of time.

“I saw the video. It was clear he was doing what he was doing but for a 12-year-old wean to see that…”

On the effect on his daughter, the dad said: “I’ve been in and out of school a couple times just because of her mood and the way she’s acting has stemmed from this. She has not been going out as much, and she used to be out all the time. She has changed and is a bit reserved about going out.”

The court previously heard how Reid began pleasuring himself after the girls boarded the bus at Saltcoats station at about 8.20am on July 26 last year.

The court heard Reid looked at the girls while performing the sex act, then paused when new passengers boarded, and tried to join in their conversation.

One of the girls began to record him on her mobile before they then started to text each other instead of speaking and agreed to pretend to get off the bus.

They told the driver, who then contacted a supervisor, while Reid got off the bus. Police identified him through photographs.

Sheriff Foran sentenced Reid to a community payback order with supervision for two years, a restriction of liberty order to stay at home from 7am-7pm and placed him on the sex offender register.

James McFadzean – Kilmarnock

29 Wednesday Jan 2020

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January 2020

Kilmarnock man sent vile sexual messages to girls he thought were underage

A Kilmarnock man who sent vile sexual messages to girls he believed to be aged between 12 and 15 has appeared in court.

James McFadzean, 54, engaged in a number of chats on the social media dating app Skout.

He spoke with four girls who told him they were aged between 12 and 15 and continued the sexual nature of the conversation, asking them if they were a “good girl or a naughty girl” and describing sexual acts to them.

However, McFadzean was actually talking to adults who were members of various paedophile-hunter groups and pretending to be underage girls.

McFadzean, whose address was given as MacKellar Place at New Farm Loch, appeared before Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on Monday and pleaded guilty to four charges of sending sexual messages to social media profiles which he thought were held by underage girls and attempting to communicate indecently with them.

The prosecutor described to the court that the profiles were being operated by “paedophile-hunter vigilante groups”.

On March 15, McFadzean messaged a girl with an account on Skout.

The profile was being controlled by an adult woman who was using the pseudonym of ‘Jade’, a 15-year-old.

Jade told McFadzean she was 15 and their chat continued until March 31.

The prosecutor said: “The chat was sexual in nature. The accused asked Jade whether she was a good or naughty girl.

“He stated that he wanted to engage in sexual chat. She reminded him of her age. The accused thereafter invited her to send him photographs of herself while asking if she was naughty.”

The next charge similarly referred to a profile on Skout held by an adult woman under the fake name of ‘Tasha’ a 15-year-old.

McFadzean started talking to Tasha on February 1 at which time she told him her age.

The prosecutor added: “The accused requested photographs of her. He said he wanted the photographs to see if she was sexy.

“Again, she was asked if she was naughty.”

McFadzean then asked if she had ever performed a sex act and then sent her messages instructing her in how to do so.

On another charge, McFadzean admitted sending sexual messages to a girl he thought was aged 12.

The account was run by an adult under the pseudonym of ‘Esme’ and McFadzean began the chat on February 5.

The fiscal depute said: “She immediately told him she was 12. He asked for a photograph of herself.

“The conversation continued until April 10 last year. During the course of the conversation the accused stated he was on Skout to talk about sex.

“The accused received the reply that Esme did not know anything about sex and he said, ‘I hope not at your age unless you are a naughty girl’.”

McFadzean then sent messages about sex acts and described them to her.

On a final charge, an adult using the pseudonym of ‘Kelsea’ (aged 13) was messaged by McFadzean.

The prosecutor said: “The accused approached this profile on March 21 saying, ‘do you fancy a flirty chat with an older guy?’

“He asked Kelsea is she was a good girl or a naughty girl. The chat continued until April 28.”

McFadzean then told Kelsea he was “horny” and asked her to send him photographs and then began to describe a sex act.

The fiscal depute told the court that the organisation running the accounts set up a ‘sting’ on April 28.

He said: “Two members of Child Protection Scotland attended at the accused’s home address.

“A video was being taken at this time and the accused stated he would not speak while they were recording him.”

McFadzean was later arrested by police.

Defending agent James Irvine said: “In due course he will speak with social workers and give them information about his own attitude to this and the impact which has been devastating for him and his family.”

Sheriff Alastair Watson said: “The nature of the charges means you will be subject to notifications of the sex offenders’ registration scheme.”

Sentencing was deferred until February for social work reports to be prepared.