Paedophile DJ is jailed af ter online confession

A FORMER Radio Clyde DJ who confessed online to sexually abusing a child was yesterday jailed for three years.

James Russell, 56, was caught when a friend lured him into admitting his sordid crimes during an internet chat.

Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that one of the user names Russell used online was ‘Peter.fyle’.

The court heard that the DJ, formerly the voice of Motherwell FC, confessed to a ‘ stranger’ on a swingers’ website that he had abused a schoolgirl then posted a photograph of his victim online.

The woman he communicated with was actually his friend using a fake identity, and she knew the child.

Russell’s victim, now 16, told the j ury she had been indecently assaulted by him.

He was convicted of using lewd and libidinous practices and behaviour towards the girl on a number of occasions between November 2009 and December 2010 when she was between ten and 11 years old.

He was also convicted of sexually assaulting her on a number of occasions as well as taking indecent photographs of the girl.

Russell, of Govanhill, Glasgow, was also found guilty of possessing indecent images of children and sexual pictures of humans and animals.

A woman friend of Russell’s told the court she had become suspicious of him and carried out an internet search.

She found his profile on a swingers’ website and, posing as a fellow site user, engaged i n online chats with him.

Referring to his victim, Russell told the woman: ‘Every time I see her in her school uniform I want to molest her so sometimes I do.’

Excerpts of chat logs were read to the court including him saying he was a ‘borderline paedo’, adding: ‘It’s actually quite nice to admit.’

The woman told the court: ‘I was very shocked, I didn’t know what to do. Obviously I was upset, I knew at that point I had to take it further.’

Russell also told the woman about his ‘illegal’ porn collection.

She later contacted the police and t ol d t hem about t he onli ne conversations.

Russell told the court he wanted to become sexually involved with the woman he was talking to online and thought that their conversations would help with this. He denied sexually abusing the girl.

Sheriff Sam Cathcart ordered Russell to be monitored in the community for two years after his release.

Russell was not working at Radio Clyde at the time of the offences.

‘I see her in her school uniform’