A pensioner who failed to notify police he was on the sex offenders register after being allowed to sleep in the same room as a child was admonished at Perth Sheriff Court.
In what Sheriff Alastair Brown called “wholly exceptional” circumstances, Norman Shaw (78), of Cromlix Road, Perth, walked free after the sheriff said there was nothing “sinister” about the pensioner living with the family, who had befriended him.
The court heard that Shaw had been jailed for 15 months in 2003 for an indecent assault on a child. Depute fiscal Charmaine Cole said the offences dated back to the 1980s and could be classed as “historical”.
She told the court how Shaw later became friendly with a family who regarded him as a “grandfather”. The child had told social work that Shaw had been living with his family and they shared his bedroom. Police were notified at that point.
Shaw admitted failing to notify the police he was on the sex offenders register between March 23 and 29 last year, and also between December 24 2011 and January 7 last year, at an address in Perth.
