Life sentence for paedophile who raped baby girl

A judge told David Morrison: “You have committed unspeakable and incomprehensible acts of depravity towards a child and even invited like-minded paedophiles to share your experience by photographing and transmitting the evidence.”

Lord Bonomy said Morrison had also indulged in the sharing of images of anonymous abuse of other young children for his own sexual satisfaction.

The judge said he was entirely satisfied that Morrison met the standards for imposing an Order of Lifelong Restriction on the sex predator because if at liberty there was a likelihood he would seriously endanger the lives or physical or psychological well-being of members of the public.

He told Morrison that he was obsessed with himself and had indulged his “own deviant fantasies”.

Police later revealed that the investigation launched into Morrison has led to 15 other paedophiles in Britian being caught and a further 75 worldwide in 24 countries, including the USA, Canada and Sweden.

Senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Barry Blair of Central Scotland police public protection unit said: “I think it is important to realise David Morrison is clearly one of the most dangerous sexual predators we have had to investigate and we think that is reflected in the sentence today.”

“We are pleased he will remain behind bars until he is deemed to be no longer a threat to the public,” he said.

“It took a lot of work. it took a lot of resources but we have got a result today and that makes it worthwhile. It really was quite an intricate investigation in terms of pulling together the strands of evidence to show David Morrison really was the person responsible for it, culminating in the veins on the back of his hand which we were able to show to an expert,” he said.

Detective Sergeant Douglas Howie said all the detectives who viewed the messages were volunteers and were supported by counselling.

Lord Bonomy ordered that Morrison, formerly of Kersiebank Avenue, Grangemouth, in Stirlingshire, should serve a minimum of four years in prison before he is eligible to even apply for parole.

Under an OLR any decision over whether to free him would be taken by the Parole Board and if released he would be kept under continuing supervision.

During a police operation against Morrison police brought in a human identification expert, Professor Sue Black from Dundee University, who was able to link an image recovered from a computer to him through the veins on his hand.

Morrison was found to have amassed a total of 13,141 still images and 166 videos of child pornography through downloading by computer with some of the material at the most extreme level.

A woman saw him putting his hand down his child victim’s nappy and he revealed he had been having sexual fantasies about the child. She later spoke to a social worker and police were contacted.

Officers turned up at his home on December 10 in 2010 and found a computer connected to the internet downloading files from a website containing indecent images of children while he was not there.

They began seizing computer equipment and during an operation - dubbed Operation Malta - discovered that he had distributed images to 52 different email addresses around the world.

Those he had sent the material followed chat log conversations the majority of which had discussed their shared interest in paedophilia. Intelligence was passed on to other forces across the world.

The content of chat logs led the police to believe that a number of the indecent images found of a computer hard drive actually featured Morrison abusing the baby girl. In chat logs he admitted carrying out sex acts on the victim. Expert analysis of one picture confirmed partial penetration.

Officers questioned him about the incident with the child witnessed by the woman and he said he was not admitting, but could not deny it either as he had little or no recollection of the day because of drink and drugs.

Morrison turned up intoxicated at Falkirk police station and later told officers he had been seeking out child pornography on the internet and downloading it and adopted a persona to share material.

But he claimed that he did it to protect children from paedophiles and said he was gathering evidence which he could later share with police to catch them.

Defence counsel Derick Nelson told the court that a report on Morrison revealed he was suffering from “several personality disorders” and was assessed as falling into the category of high risk.

He added: “He realises he still does need help.”

Morrison earlier admitted abusing and raping the child at a house in Grangemouth and possessing and distributing indecent photos of children in 2009 and 2010.

Lord Bonomy told Morrison: “I recognise that you were subjected to abuse, both mental and physical, in your early years which were spent in very deprived circumstances.”

He said flaws in his character had been allowed to blossom resulting in a history of irresponsibility and criminal behaviour.

Morrison was placed on the sex offenders’ register.