Graduate jailed for a year after grooming 13-year-old girl for sex

Published on 22/11/2005 01:06

A GRADUATE who groomed a girl of 13 for sex on a mobile phone internet dating site, has been jailed for a year.

The judge, Lord Philip, put Duncan McCormick, 24, on the sex offenders' register and also ordered him, following his release on licence, to undertake a three-year course for sex offenders.

McCormick, a Jehovah's Witness, of Thornliebank, Glasgow, admitted having unlawful sex with the girl in the Gladyer Inn Hotel, Rosyth, on 10 February this year.

The High Court in Glasgow heard how McCormick sweet-talked the Fife girl for nine weeks before luring her to a hotel, where he had intercourse with her.

McCormick, a Strathclyde University computer sciences graduate, knew the girl had reached her 14th birthday just five days before they met. The court heard that after a school concert the girl spent the night at a friend's house and used the internet on her friend's mobile phone to access a "speed-dating" site, giving their ages as 18.

The girls browsed through a list of registered users before selecting McCormick.

Both girls sent text messages to him in which they revealed their ages, the victim being 13 and her friend 14. McCormick told them that his name was Steve and he said he was 23.

McCormick encouraged the victim to meet him in a Rosyth hotel, where they had sex, five days after her 14th birthday.

The girl then went back to her friend's house and told her what had happened. The case came to light after the girl confessed to her mother.

The court was told that a police officer and a social worker who interviewed the girl had found her to be an "articulate, intelligent girl who was immature in emotional matters".