Beast preyed on schoolgirls

Man jailed over sex with youngsters

A paedophile predator who groomed underage schoolgirls on Facebook before meeting them for sex has been jailed for four years.

Dylan Bennett raped a 12- yearold and had unprotected sex with a 14-year-old who became pregnant by him and later had his child.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Judge Lord Woolman imposed an extended prison sentence with a punishment period of four years and a further four years on licence.

He also placed Bennett (22) from Linlithgow, on the sex offenders’ register.

Bennett earlier pled guilty to statutory rape, having sex with an older child and further sexual offences, including intentionally sending sexual messages to the girls and sending one of them a picture of his penis.

He also admitted intentionally meeting an under-age girl to engage in unlawful sexual activity with her, knowing that she was under 16.

A jury cleared him of raping another 13 year-old girl but found him guilty of having unlawful sex with her.

The High Court in Livingston heard distressing evidence from all three of the sick predator’s victims about how he hung about with younger children and befriended them through their classmates.

He had sex with the 12- year- old at a house in Linlithgow High Street but arranged to take the other two schoolgirls to the woods in Livingston and Uphall for sex sessions.

Giving evidence in his own defence, Bennett said he didn’t realise that his sexual behaviour with under-age girls was illegal. He claimed it was only after he’d been pulled up by the police that he accepted it had been “the wrong thing to do”.

He said he had “no doubt” that the 13- year- old had consented to intercourse with him after they exchanged raunchy messages on social media.

He said she appeared to be happy after their Facebook date on May 7, 2015, and told him she was “glad” that she’d lost her virginity to him.

The girl, however, gave evidence that she was “scared “of him because of his height and claimed he’d forced himself on her.

Bennett, who has been on remand at Addiewell Prison since January 2016, was described as a “tragic” character who had watched his mother die in front of him when he was aged 10.