Child sex pervert back in jail

Peter Staszek spoke to nine-year-old and 13-year-old girls during visits to friends in Edinburgh who were aware of his past sexual offending against youngsters.

Staszek was jailed for six years in 1995 after admitting unlawful sex with a child after the 14-year-old victim gave birth to a stillborn baby before leaving the body at a park at Dalkeith. Police appeals for the mother to come forward were unsuccessful but after the girl became pregnant a second time and had a termination a DNA match was found with the stillborn child.

Staszek was jailed again by a sheriff in 2002 after being convicted of indecency and breach of the peace offences.

The authorities later went to Edinburgh Sheriff Court and obtained a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) against him. Staszek, 58, admitted breaching the order imposed on him by a sheriff in 2008.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard the SOPO included prohibiting him from approaching, speaking or communicating with a child as well as banning him from entering areas such as children's play parks.

Staszek had also faced further charges of indecency towards the girls which alleged that he chased one of them into a bedroom and also offered to teach her about sex education and slapped and handled the other, but the Crown accepted his not guilty pleas to them.

The Crown asked a judge to consider calling for a risk assessment order which can lead to a life sentence under the imposition of an Order for Lifelong Restriction.

But after hearing submissions in the case Lord Bracadale said he was not in a position to make an order on Staszek.

The judge told him the offences of breaching the conditions of the SOPO were serious and he would have faced a longer sentence but for his guilty pleas. Jailing him for 30 months, Lord Bracadale said: "On a number of occasions you were present in houses in which a child was present and had contact with children."

A police officer who was monitoring Staszek discovered details of his contact and when officers went to his address he said: "I am going back to the jail, aren't I?"

Unemployed Staszek, described as a prisoner in Edinburgh, had found accommodation in the Greendykes area and would visit friends in Craigmillar, said defence solicitor advocate Richard Goddard.

He was present at the house when the girls were visiting. "There was obviously an opportunity for him to have left and he recognises he should have done that," said the defence lawyer.

"He maintains that any communication was of an everyday sort and was not sexual in its nature," he said.