A Fife sex offender who once travelled 150 miles to meet a 15-year-old girl he groomed online has been jailed again for “following” teenagers around Glenrothes.
Liam Russell appeared by video link at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on Tuesday and admitted breaching the terms of his Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO).
The 25-year-old, listed as a prisoner at HMP Perth, hung about Asda in Glenrothes and North Street in the town centre in the presence of teenage girls.
One of the young women told police: “I don’t feel safe around him.”
Russell had been ordered in 2015 not to have any contact with people under the age of 18.
‘He just keeps following us around’
Police clocked him in Asda at the self scanners with a pair of teenage girls.
They confronted him as he waiting for a bus with three young females, one of whom was 18.
Fiscal depute Claire Bremner explained that on this occasion, one of the girls told police: “I’ve heard about him and I don’t feel safe around him.
“He approached us a while ago and he just keeps following us around.”
Russell also admitted another breach of his order by texting a 15-year-old girl in Renfrewshire.
Police were carrying out a routine check of his phone when they saw messages to the teenager.
They asked local officers to check with the girl who confirmed they spoke on social media too.
When police returned to seize Russell’s phone, it had no SIM card, but they found the girl’s name and number at his home in Smeaton Gardens, Kirkcaldy, on a scrap of paper.
Russell admitted breaching his SOPO between August and September 2021.
Jailed again
His solicitor David Bell said in relation to the texting: “There’s not a great deal of mitigation one can put forward.
“There’s nothing before the court to suggest the communication was sexual.
“He’s an isolated individual, he doesn’t have a peer group.
“He’s spent most of his adult life in and out of prison.
“Regrettably, he seems to find himself in the company of teenagers, hanging around.
“He has to refrain from that.”
Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane jailed Russell for a year.
She said: “Mr Russell, if you continue to breach your order then you will continue to go back into prison because the options are fairly limited.”
On order after grooming teen
When he was aged 18, Russell groomed a 15-year-old girl online and travelled 150 miles to meet her at her Ross-shire school.
He took the girl to the school bike sheds and fondled her before she went into class.
Then living in Dunfermline, Russell was jailed after he admitted three sex offences involving two teenage girls at Inverness Sheriff Court.
In 2015, a court heard that Russell posted an indecent video to a social networking site on February 27 of that year showing a woman performing a sex act.
He also posted a message that the woman in the video was a 16-year-old girl he knew, causing distress to the teenager and her mother.
Russell also admitted travelling to Ross-shire on March 18, while on bail, with the intention of engaging in sexual activity with a teenager and groping her in the school grounds.
