Underage girls were groomed by chef

A CHEF who groomed two underage girls before being caught with indecent images has been ordered to carry out unpaid work.

Ross Gibson engaged in sexual activity with children before breaching a court order preventing him from contacting one of them.

Quick-thinking residents in Glenrothes became suspicious of Gibson’s behaviour after he was spotted picking up a girl in his car.

The 31-year-old pled guilty to sexual offences at addresses in Dundee and Fife over two years.

Police would later raid Gibson’s home on Balfour Gardens in Glenrothes and find 25 indecent images of children, some of which were at the highest level of depravity.

He previously pled guilty to meeting a girl with the intention of engaging in sexual activity and engaging in sexual activity on November 7 and November 29 2021 on Watson Street, Dundee.

Gibson downloaded indecent images of children between May 1 2018 and April 14 2023.

He engaged in sexual activity with a second child between December 1 and 31 2022 and also admitted possessing cannabis on June 7 2023.

Gibson would later meet and communicate with the girl on May 15 and May 29 2023, in breach of bail conditions imposed on May 4 that year.

Solicitor advocate Simon Whyte, defending, told Dundee Sheriff Court: “The (social work) report is perhaps refreshing as there’s a frankness to his explanation of his offending behaviour which is perhaps not common in offences of this type.

“That could give the court some optimism if a stringent community payback order was imposed then him being placed on the Moving Forward Making Changes programme is going to have a more significant impact on the risk of reoffending than a backdated sentence.”

Sheriff Paul Brown placed him on supervision for three years, with a requirement to engage with Moving Forward Making Changes, and gave him 180 hours of unpaid work.