Paedo shock
Residents of a quiet Cambuslang street have been left horrified to discover they have been staying next to a paedophile.
Sick Andrew Baisley, of Fraser Street, was last week jailed for two years after he was found with more than 45,000 indecent images of children.
Residents of a quiet cul-de-sac in Cambuslang expressed utter disbelief that a paedophile was living in an area with many young families.
Last week Andrew Baisley was jailed for two years after he was found with more than 45,000 indecent images of children.
The 37-year-old trading standards officer denied downloading child pornography despite police finding a vile haul at his Fraser Street flat.
He claimed he mistakenly ordered some online, believing it was gay porn and that “acquaintances” left pieces of hardware with the filth at his house.
But a search found a laptop and hardware with 45,725 images of children, ranging from the lowest to the highest level of seriousness.
After a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court the jury rejected his version and convicted him of downloading and possessing indecent images of children between 2003 and 2014.
Sheriff Joseph Platt sentenced Baisley to two years in prison and put him on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
Speaking to the Reformer days after Baisley’s sentencing, his neighbours said it was a close-knit community but they were not able to picture him.
They said the single block of flats in the cul-de-sac had seen a high turnover in the past two years.
One resident, who did not want to be named, said: “We are so surprised because this is a nice wee estate. We are so shocked that someone like this was within our midst.
“Especially with the amount of kids here, that’s worrying.
“We have never been in contact with anything like that and to have something like this happen is distressing.
“We have grandchildren and we also brought up our own two children here. We have been here for 18 years and there has always been children running about here.
“Going back a few years we had as many as 22 children under the age of 16 in this estate.”
Anne Cameron has lived in Fraser Street since the new homes were built almost 20 years ago.
She said: “There has been a high turnover in the past few years in the flats but his name rings a bell. “That has shocked me. It’s terrible. “My kids are 24 and 21 and to think someone has been staying there that you don’t know if they have been photographing children out playing.”
A third neighbour who did not want to be named was horrified to learn of Baisley’s conviction, saying a number of residents’ worked in childcare and were well educated on child protection.
She said: “This is a really nice street to live in and everyone is so kind. Everyone is really good with the children in the street.”
Baisley ordered illegal child images from a company in Canada, using his credit card which sparked a probe.
Police went to his house where they took two hard drives, a USB pen drive and a laptop.
He alleged he was very unlucky when members of his Gamblers Anonymous group came back to his house after a meeting and left items of hardware behind.
It was said on his behalf that Baisley maintains his innocence and has lost his job as a result of the conviction.
We are so shocked that someone like this was within our midst. That’s worrying.