A thief who pilfered pants from washing lines around Arbroath was wearing stolen black lace women’s underwear when he was taken into police custody.
During six nocturnal raids, Graham Orrock amassed a stockpile of worn pants, bras, swimwear and other clothing, some belonging to children.
When Orrock was arrested, he told police the juvenile items were to fit his blow-up sex doll.
Orrock, 36, was placed on the Sex Offenders Register at Forfar Sheriff Court despite a plea to be spared.
Perverse plundering
Orrock targeted four different gardens in and around Arbroath town centre between June and August last summer – two repeatedly.
The first was a ground floor flat in Hill Street on June 23.
The owner had hung washing, including three pairs of black Marks & Spencer size 10 pants.
Orrock was clocked on CCTV entering the garden just before 3.30am wearing gloves and carrying a bag.
He inspected the laundry, rejected a pair of blue boys pants, then stuffed the woman’s knickers into his bag.
He returned on July 31 and made off with a bikini and boy’s beachwear.
Between his trips to the flat, Orrock turned his attention to a home in Hayswell Road.
On his first visit, on July 19, he trousered two bras.
Returning on August 1, Orrock stole a child’s new Zoggs one-piece swimsuit.
This prompted the woman who lived there to take stock of her own clothing.
She noticed six pairs of knickers were missing.
Orrock’s next strike was a washing line on East Abbey Street on August 12.
When the occupant checked her home security camera, the footage snared the thief, who was in the garden at around 3.45am.
He had taken two pairs of size 8-9 denim shorts and t-shirt and matching red and black women’s underwear sets.
The next-door neighbour was targeted the following night, with Orrock helping himself to a pair of girl’s pants, aged 6-7 and women’s black and pink pyjamas.
The pervert also took an extra-small 2021-2022 Arbroath FC home top.
Smalls thief at large
Orrock’s antics were brought to an end when police searched his home.
Orrock’s then home in West Abbey Street was raided by officers on the evening of September 7.
They found dozens of ill-gotten garments, including pants, bras and tights.
Police took Orrock to Dundee headquarters for interview and a custody search revealed he was wearing a pair of stolen black women’s pants.
He told police wearing women’s lingerie sexually motivated him but the clothes were all purchased from a charity shop.
This included the children’s clothes, which he said fitted his blow-up sex doll.
Orrock, now of Spittalfield Place, was released by police on an undertaking with a condition he remain at home between 7pm and 7am until his court appearance.
He admitted breaching this on September 27.
Register debate
Orrock initially admitted the thefts in late 2022 but a hearing was held on whether the offending merited him being placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
Registration is required where there is deemed to be a “significant sexual element” in the crime.
Solicitor Billy Rennie said his client did not get sexual gratification from the thefts themselves.
He said, for example, thieves who stole “top shelf magazines from WH Smith” would not be made subject to notification.
He said: “The danger for the members of the public who have suffered from his behaviour is theft of their items – there isn’t a danger from his conduct in his own home.
“The complainers are not suffering from the sexual conduct of the accused, they’re suffering loss of property.
“There is too much of a break in the link between what he was doing and the sexual gratification he was subsequently receiving in his own home.”
He said if there is a sexual element, it is not “significant”.
“There’s nothing deviant or concerning… about what he’s doing in his own home.”
Disagreeing, Sheriff Krista Johnston noted: “The items taken were very targeted… in order to be worn.
“They’re not brand new underwear, they’re used underwear.
“It’s underwear belonging to women, it’s not just underwear in a shop.
“Do the women not require to be protected?”
Debate settled
Orrock’s period of notification will be announced next month when reports have been prepared.
The sheriff said: “It’s not deviant to be a cross dresser.
“It’s not deviant to have a sex toy doll.
“But Mr Orrock, you articulated that the theft of these items was sexually motivated.
“Therefore, my opinion is the offences do have a significant sexual element.
“I consider that the behaviour is behaviour which is indicative of underlying sexual deviancy.”
Violent past
When he was 23, Orrock was jailed for six years at Glasgow High Court after blinding a Kirriemuir pensioner with his own walking stick.
The 66-year-old was left with two ruptured eyes and was registered blind after Orrock’s “brutal and merciless” attack in the OAP’s own home.
He was then locked up for two years and eight months after he walked into his father’s workplace and broke his jaw after demanding he top up his electric meter.
Graham Orrock Sr was battered in the Don and Low factory where he worked after Orrock and had a metal plate fitted and was told to live on a liquid diet for six weeks afterwards.
However, he was spared imprisonment in 2018 after he brandished a glass bottle and a metal pole at a group of people in Forfar.
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