Drug dealer, 58, got into ‘relationship’ with 16-year-old girl

A drug dealer who gave a child ecstasy, photographed himself having sex with her and threatened to make public the images has been jailed.

Sheriff Alastair Carmichael sentenced Dundee man Derek Scotland, 58, to five years behind bars and to be on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

He has also been given a 10-year non-harassment order after being found guilty of stalking the girl.

Scotland, of Peddie Street, befriended the youngster after she attempted suicide aged 14 and engaged in a number of sexual acts with her.

The “relationship” continued after the girl turned 16 but turned sour after an argument with the teenager’s mother. Scotland then pestered the girl and threatened to release intimate images.

His defence solicitor, Ian Houston, told the court: “This was not a case of him grooming her, it was a case of her being available to him and him not having the willpower to resist what was basically an offer.

“He accepts he ought to have said no. He is a man who has been single all his life and there was a degree of loneliness.”

During a trial at Dundee Sheriff Court, Scotland admitted having had sex with the girl but denied doing so before her 16th birthday.

However, a jury found him guilty of sexual activity with a child, taking photographs of the act, sending threatening messages and turning up at her home address and possessing indecent images of a child.

He pled guilty to threatening to make public intimate images of the girl.

The offences took place over a three-year period between 2014 and 2017.

Scotland was further found guilty of being concerned in the supply of ecstasy between December 31 2012 and November 21 2017 at Peddie Street.

He admitted being concerned in the supply of cannabis resin between July 1 2007 and November 21 2017 at the same address, as well as possessing amphetamine on November 21 2017.