A paedophile who jetted off on a family holiday without telling police he was leaving the country has been jailed.
Paul Scally, 42, was spotted by a sex offender unit police officer in Edinburgh Airport with a group of travellers heading to the Canary island resort Fuertaventura.
After spending a week on the sunshine island, he will spend the next year behind bars after a sheriff told him he had no option but to jail him.
It is understood reports compiled in the wake of Scally’s holiday bungle suggested the matter be escalated to the High Court but Sheriff George Way instead imprisoned him for 12 months, reduced from 18 for his early plea.
Illicit flight
Scally, of Newburgh, had been sentenced to two years in prison after being convicted in 2015 of sexual offences against a child under the age of 13.
As part of his sex offender registration requirements, Scally is required to inform police when he intends leaving the country.
He was spotted in September last year by an off-duty officer as he illicitly boarded his flight.
The officer was part of Police Scotland’s Sex Offender Policing Unit and noticed Scally as he waited to board his own flight.
Scally as arrested on his return from the holiday.
Spotted by off-duty officer
At an earlier hearing, depute fiscal Lynn Manion told Dundee Sheriff Court: “On his (Scally’s) release from prison he was given a leaflet notifying him of the requirements, which he signed to acknowledge.
“At around 4.45 am on September 8 2022, a police officer from the sex offender’s policing unit was off-duty, waiting to board a flight at Edinburgh Airport, when he saw the accused and family members in the airport travelling as a group.
“This was reported to the unit.
“However, due to the information being sent in the early hours of the morning it was not picked up until several hours later.
“A check of police systems revealed that the accused had not registered the foreign travel notification and accordingly breached his sexual offender notification requirement.
“A marker was placed on the police national computer for the accused.
“Police were alerted he would return from Fuertaventura on September 15 at 4.45pm.
“He was apprehended as he left the flight, cautioned and charged and made no reply.”
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