Statue of murdered schoolboy wrecked by vandals

THE heartbroken mother of a schoolboy, murdered by a convicted paedophile, has condemned vandals who wrecked a statue of her son, erected at the spot where his body was found.

Nine year-old Scott Simpson was strangled by Steven Leisk, whose criminal record included four convictions for sex offences. Scott was abducted from a playground near his home in the Powis area of Aberdeen in July 1997 and his body was found four days later in a secluded lane off Elpinstone Road.

The statue of the boy, wearing jeans and a cap, had been erected near the spot where his body was discovered, to mark the 14th anniversary of his death.

But the memorial has been knocked off the cement pedestal on which it was placed.

His mother, Patsy, said: “They’re just the lowest of the low to do that.”

Leisk was jailed for a minimum of 25 years in 1997, but this was cut by five years in 2002.