Sheriff’s anger over paedophile case delay Creep had sex with girl
A sheriff has hit out after learning that the sentencing of an English paedophile -- who repeatedly drove across the Border to groom a Scottish schoolgirl for sex -- has been held up by “discourteous” English probation officers.
Car company boss Matthew Kelsey, 32, posed as a teenager to gain the trust of his “vulnerable” victim and made repeated trips from Humberside to Stirlingshire to meet the girl near her local primary school.
He plied her with presents, called her his “Pumpkin” and “Princess”, then coaxed her into the back of a sliding-door van, which he had fitted out with a rug and a bed, and had sex with her twice.
He pleaded guilty last month to having sexual intercourse with the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and sending her sexual communications.
Sentence had to be deferred for a report to look at the option of a community-based disposal, which the law says a court must first consider and reject if it is to jail an offender like Kelsey, who has not been jailed before.
Kelsey, of Brough, Humberside, was remanded in custody to Low Moss Prison, Bishopbriggs, for the report to be prepared.
But when he re-appeared, by video-link at Falkirk Sheriff Court on Tuesday the court heard English probation officers had done nothing about it.
Sheriff Simon Collins QC said: “The request for the report was made by the clerk of court to the local authority for Low Moss.
“They understandably have referred it to Mr Kelsey’s home local authority because were it to be that a community-based sentence was passed in his case it would be them that would have to implement it.
“They have not produced a report and they have not replied to the Scottish local authority’s request for that report.
“It’s obviously unsatisfactory.” Addressing Kelsey over the video-link to the jail and continuing his remand until September 29th, the sheriff added: “It’s obviously not acceptable that not only has no report been produced, given that everybody knows where you are, but also that there hasn’t even been the courtesy of a response from your local authority in England.”
Last month the court heard Kelsey first made contact with the girl through Facebook Messenger in March 2019, and before long they were messaging each other several times a day.
After role-playing sex on Facebook with the girl, he met her for the first time last summer, driving up to a village outside Stirling, where the offences took place.
He even met her parents and told them he was 15.
When their besotted daughter told them what she believed was the truth - that Kelsey was a 19-year-old called Alan Thomas - they called the police.
The court heard Kelsey was convicted in 2012 of inciting a girl under the age of 16 to engage in sexual activity -- at the time he was working as a piano teacher and he picked up a girl pupil in his vehicle and kissed her on the mouth.
But for that offence, which he pleaded guilty to, he was placed under supervision for 24 months.
According to Companies House, Kelsey is managing director and majority shareholder of used car company MK Autos Ltd.