Church member who abused children fails to overturn conviction

Judge rules grooming showed systematic behaviour

A church member who sexually abused children over a 10-year period has failed in his bid to have his conviction overturned.

Derek Smith was jailed for 38 months in June last year, with an extended sentence of a further 18 months, after being convicted of repeatedly carrying out lewd acts on a 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl.

Lawyers acting for the 49-year-old argued Sheriff Fiona Tait should have dismissed the case as there was insufficiently strong evidence to link the charges.

The Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh dismissed the attempt but altered the sentence, ruling Sheriff Tait had made an error in interpreting the law.

Solicitor advocate John Keenan, representing Smith, argued there was not a strong enough connection between the incidents for them to be considered a course of conduct and said the case was a “miscarriage of justice”.

David Edward QC, for the Crown, said Smith has been grooming his victims, showering them with gifts and integrating himself within their families.

Headdedthatwhiletheoffencesagainst the boy were repeated, the fact there was only one offence in relation to the girl was because she had avoided Smith after he had touched her inappropriately.

Lord Brodie stated: “While there was a disparity in terms of the conduct, the conduct in charge two began in the same way as the conduct in charge one until it was interrupted by the complainer removing herself from the situation.

“Moreover, as the solicitor advocate for the appellant accepted, the conduct of the appellant prior to any of the assaults spoken to by the complainers fell readily into the recognisable pattern of behaviour often described as ‘grooming’.

“In our opinion, that points strongly to the appellant’s conduct being not only plannedbutalsosystematic,inotherwords beingacourseofcriminalconductinwhich the particular assaults are but incidents.”

He quashed Smith’s original sentence, ordering him to serve 38 months behind bars but removing the extended term.

A jury at Perth Sheriff Court found Smith, of Anstruther, guilty of indecently assaulting the boy in Perth and Dunfermline between January 1, 2000 and November 1, 2003. They also found him guilty of indecently assaulting the girl in Leven in August 2010.

...the complainer’s behaviour fell readily into the recognisable pattern of behaviour often described as ‘grooming’