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‘You’re an evil man’ — Serial Fife sex offender faces extended prison term

Craig Bence in 2017, when he was convicted at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Craig Bence in 2017, when he was convicted at Dundee Sheriff Court.

An “evil” serial sex offender faces an extended spell behind bars after his latest offence.

Craig Bence engaged in explicit chats with other paedophiles using the messaging service Kik and was caught with almost 1000 obscene images of children.

The 36-year-old, who once changed his name and continued his offending, was previously jailed for three years for a similar offence.

He is back in prison for this offence.

At Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, Sheriff Grant McCulloch told him: “You’re an evil man.

“You are in custody, where you deserve to be and no doubt you will receive a custodial sentence but I’m considering an extended sentence.”

Bence admitted to police having material

Fiscal depute Ronnie Hay told the court: “At 8.20am on January 21 officers executed a search warrant at the locus.

“The accused was traced within the flat and was alone.

“The accused was searched and an iPod was recovered from his pocket.

“Without prompting he said, ‘There’s stuff on that’.

“A search was carried out of the flat.”

Mr Hay said the iPod was later found to contain 270 images and 140 videos at category A, the worst kind.

A further 128 images and 27 videos were at category B, and 738 images and six videos at category C.

The images were “predominantly, but not exclusively” of females.

Bence was also found to have used Kik to hold vile conversations, including one in which he asked an unidentified user if his seven-year-old cousin could be sexually violated.

Repeat offender

Bence, of Perth Prison, admitted taking indecent photos of children at an address in Sutherland Place, Kirkcaldy between October 3 and January 16.

He further admitted distributing images from the same address between December 1 and January 16.

He also pled guilty to acting in a threatening and abusive manner on numerous occasions between November 29, 2020 and December 11, 2020 by using Kik to discuss and encourage the rape and sexual abuse of children.

Sentence was deferred until next month.

In 2017 Bence – then calling himself Craig Robertson and living in Leuchars – was jailed for three years after he was caught with “violent” child abuse images which he distributed to other perverts.

He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for an indefinite period.

On that occasion he was caught with more than 700 images and videos, mainly of girls under 15.

He was also jailed in 2010 for an identical offence.