The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Paedophile hid identity with £42 name change
Apaedophile who changed his identity to hide his past has been jailed for the devious bid to reinvent himself as a respectable family man.
Steven MacDonald – one of the country’s worst sex offenders – was able to gain access to the child of an associate who had no idea who he really was, thanks to the legal name change costing just £42.44.
The builder, previously known as Steven Perrie, was able to move in with a woman and her child – despite it being a breach of strict court conditions.
Sheriff Richard MacFarlane jailed him for 232 days at Dundee Sheriff Court.
The court was told Perrie – who has been jailed for previous sex crimes – defied numerous strict conditions of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.
“You do not see yourself as presenting a risk,” Sheriff MacFarlane said. “The author of the report is concerned... They consider you pose a risk of causing serious harm.”
The court previously heard how Perrie changed his name after being jailed for a number of high-profile sex crimes including having child abuse material.
Using his new name, he was living with a woman and her child when social workers found out he had assumed a new identity.
His latest crimes came to light after more than a year as Steven MacDonald, when he had to change his banking details because of his new surname.
He admitted a number of offences, including having contact with children and defying a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO).
Solicitor Scott Norrie said: “He has attempted to make a new life.”
Perrie, 55, from Montrose, was operating a building company under his new name. He admitted failing to comply with sex offender notification requirements by having a Barclays Mastercard between May 1 2019 and November 19 2020.
He admitted breaking a ban on having contact with children by spending time with a six-year-old numerous times between September 2019 and November last year.
The child’s father, who cannot be named, said: “It was a shock to discover what he had been involved
in. He also did work for other people who have children.”
Perrie also admitted breaking the SOPO by engaging in a relationship with a 39-year-old woman in Aberdeen and Brechin without informing the offender management unit.
That was a relationship Perrie rekindled from previously, shortly after the woman had a child with another man.
Finally, he broke the ultra-strict order – put in place to protect the public – by owning a Facebook Portal TV device last November. He again failed to tell the offender management unit, claiming it was for his dying mother.
Perrie was made subject to the SOPO at Forfar Sheriff Court after being released from an eight-year prison sentence. It runs until September 2024.
Perrie was jailed in 2004 for being caught with a haul of abuse material, including 400,000 images.
Already on the sex offenders register for life, he was jailed for 36 months in 2005 for similar offences.
He was caught for a third time and jailed for eight years in 2012.