BEAST POUNCED ON GIRL IN PUB
Man sentenced to 4 years for attack on 7-year-old
A “dangerous” sexual predator who exposed himself to a sevenyear-old girl in a pub toilet before trying to abuse her has been jailed for more than four years.
Scott Beattie (31) attempted to pull the little girl’s trousers down after pushing her into a cubicle in a popular family restaurant in Livingston.
However, the terrified youngster managed to escape his clutches after Beattie unlocked the door and told her to wash her hands.
She ran back to her mum in a state of shock but was later able to describe her attacker to police.
The schoolgirl told cops she’d tried to scream but couldn’t because she was “too scared”.
When she told her parents what had happened they raised the alarm and police launched a manhunt.
Officers who snared Beattie after viewing CCTV footage found he had a ‘rape kit’
including a lock knife in his rucksack.
He was already on bail at the time of the offence after being charged with voyeurism for following a woman into the ladies’ toilet at a restaurant in Livingston and peering at her over the cubicle wall.
Livingston Sheriff Court was handed a victim impact statement written by the seven- year- old’s mum when Beattie appeared last Thursday.
It revealed that the youngster has had nightmares involving “the bad man” and needed cuddles from her parents to calm her.
Assistant procurator fiscal Deborah Demick told Livingston Sheriff Court : “She still talks about what happened regularly but, given her age, she’s too young to understand the severity of the situation.
“Luckily she doesn’t worry or stress about other possible outcomes.”
Beattie, whose last known address was West Main Street, Blackburn, pled guilty to placing the girl in a state of fear and alarm by pushing her into the cubicle, locking the door, exposing himself to her and trying to lower her trousers on February 15.
He also pled guilty to following a woman into the toilets at a restaurant in Livingston on January 13, entering the cubicle next to hers and watching her as she used the toilet.
Beattie’s lawyer Kevin Dugan said the social worker’s assessment that his client presented a possible danger to the public in future was an accurate one.
He admitted: “A period of imprisonment is obviously merited here, given the serious nature of the charges.”
Sheriff Martin Edington told Beattie he had considered sending him to the High Court but had decided that the maximum five-year sentencing power available to him was “just enough”.
He said: “You attempted to deny – certainly to minimise – your involvement.
“It seems to me you will say anything to anyone if you think it will help your position.
“You have 21 previous convictions which cover a broad spectrum of offending behaviour which also show a lack of compliance with court orders.
“The social work report discloses you have a strong sexual appetite and you are at increased risk of committing a further general offence and you are in a high category of sexual reconviction, partly because of your deviant sexual interests.
“There is also a compelling victim impact statement which does not attempt to exaggerate the position your seven-year-old victim and the position found herself in or the possible consequences for that.
“I ’ ve come to the conclusion that for these offences only a custodial sentence, and indeed a lengthy custodial sentence, is appropriate.”
He jailed Beattie for 49 months and two weeks, backdated to February 18, but told him he was not imposing an extended sentence because he would be on licence following his eventual release.
He also ordered that Beattie’s name remain on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.