Paedophile jailed over ‘campaign’ of abuse

A paedophile who recorded his abuse of young girls was jailed for more than ten years yesterday.

Andrew Fraser filmed and photographed some of his crimes, images of which police found among a hoard of child pornography he had amassed.

A judge told Fraser, 64, at the High Court in Edinburgh: “You have an enduring sexual attraction to young girls on which you have acted repeatedly.”

Lord Beckett said the sex offender had carried out “an extraordinary campaign” of abuse and had engineered opportunities to access children, and planned how he would initiate his crimes and cover them up.

He said: “Notwithstanding your age you were still committing acts of abuse in 2015 and accessing indecent images of children in 2016.”

The judge jailed Fraser, formerly of Queensberry Street, Annan, in Dumfries and Galloway, for a total of ten years and two months, and he was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

Lord Beckett also ordered that Fraser be kept under supervision for a further four years for public protection, and warned him that if he failed to comply with licence conditions he could be returned to prison.

The judge said that he took into account that Fraser’s guilty pleas had spared victims having to give evidence at a trial.

Benefit claimant Fraser had originally faced a total of 55 charges but earlier pleaded guilty to 17 charges of indecent behaviour, sexual assault and possessing and downloading indecent photos.

He abused 12 girls between 1991 and 2015 with his youngest victim aged just six.