SERIAL PERVERT DODGES PRISON
BY JANE HAMILTON & JAMES MULHOLLAND ONE of Scotland’s worst serial sex offenders is to be set free after being cleared of attempting to abduct two little girls.
Jurors had no idea of John Bermingham’s vile criminal record when they acquitted him yesterday,
They returned a verdict of not proven to an allegation that the 51-year-old tried to seize the girls in Falkirk in May last year.
Bermingham had been held in prison on remand during the trial because of his previous convictions but now stands to walk free from jail.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard evidence from the little girls that a man approached them while they played and told them he had lost his jacket.
The court heard he offered them £5 if they helped him find it. He also told them about a house containing treats.
The girls couldn’t identify the man. But 49-year-old Viper MacDonald saw him with the girls from the window of his home and rushed to stop him from getting away.
MacDonald was helped by a 17-year-old boy, who can’t be named for legal reasons. As they restrained him, he shouted: “I’m no a f **** n’ paedo.”
MacDonald said the man he seized was Bermingham and he told the court the accused was the man he saw with the little girls.
Police arrested him and when they took him into custody, officers discovered condoms, sweets and sleeping pills in his possession.
At the time, the Record printed a front page photograph of the moment Bermingham was pinned to the ground by police.
Prosecutors thought they had enough evidence to prove that he was abducting the girls with the intention of committing a sexual assault on them.
Bermingham chose not to give evidence and defence advocate Keith Stewart QC told the jury there was a reasonable doubt in the case against his client.
Jurors returned a not proven verdict to the charge and a not guilty verdict to a second charge that he had assaulted the 17-year-old boy in the struggle.
Relatives of the little girls left court in tears, shouting: “Well done. Wait until you find out who he is. He’s a human beast.” Bermingham tried to leave the court by the front door. He could be seen telling security guards to let him leave the dock.
However, the security guards refused him permission to leave and returned him to prison. He is expected to be released soon.
In the interests of a fair trial, jurors were not told of Bermingham’s criminal past. But he is the head of a family of notorious sex offenders. He was jailed for 12 years in 2001 for sex attacks on two young girls.
He tried to rape an 11-year-old girl behind a public library in Edinburgh.
Just an hour later, he forced an 18-year-old nursing assistant into bushes and lay on top of her with his hand over her mouth.
His victim managed to fight him off and escape. Bermingham was eventually caught by police following a dramatic 30-mile chase in Loch Lomond.
Following his imprisonent, he was released in 2008 having served just half his sentence. The father-of-five was subject to a Sexual Offfences Prevention Order (SOPO), put in place to protect children and women.
The beast caused fury when he overturned a condition of the SOPO banning him from travelling on buses during school travel times. He was arrested after travelling on buses in Carronshore and Falkirk and sent back to prison.
However, despite the Crown Office warning he was a danger to the public, three judges at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh were told there had been a change in the SOPO conditions