A Fife sex offender caught breaching a stringent court order claimed he was being harassed by a fellow paedophile from Dundee.
James Haggerty admitted breaching the terms of his Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) by being with sex offender Adam Fraser at St Andrews bus station.
The bizarre incident saw Haggerty claim Fraser had been following him.
Police reviewed CCTV footage and saw the pair and a woman leave a car, before spending time in the terminal.
Haggerty, 25, originally of Kennoway, was placed on the SOPO in 2020 but has breached the order on several occasions.
In 2023, he was involved in a siege with police in Fife.
Adam Fraser was jailed in 2020 for having abuse images and again in 2023 because sick files were found when he handed over a bag of stuffed unicorns to a stranger at a city lock-up.
Bizarre bus station footage
Prosecutor Joanne Ritchie said Haggerty had contacted the police himself to accuse Fraser of following him.
She told Dundee Sheriff Court: “CCTV footage showed a grey Nissan Qashqai at the bus station.
“An adult female left the front passenger seat and entered the building.
“The accused exited the back passenger seat and went into the terminal
“He remains there for about nine minutes.
“For unknown reasons, he contacts the police to make the allegations.
“Adam Fraser exits the driver’s side.
“Adam Fraser and the accused are in the terminal building engaged in conversation.
“The accused makes no efforts to leave and does not look distressed.”
Haggerty later walked off in the direction of St Andrews town centre and police caught up with him to arrest him in connection with a breach of the SOPO.
It transpired Haggerty was in possession of a mobile phone without the knowledge of his supervising officers.
‘He didn’t have a gun to his head’
Haggerty, a prisoner at HMP Perth, pled guilty to breaching the order on February 1 this year by associating with a known sex offender and possessing a mobile phone without permission.
Defence solicitor Lee Qumsieh said it was her client’s position he was being harassed by Fraser and had called police at the bus station to report this.
Sheriff Paul Brown questioned whether this constituted a reasonable excuse defence.
Mr Qumsieh, however, said Haggerty had always insisted on pleading guilty.
“The plea is on the basis that clearly there’s no effort to argue there’s a reasonable excuse.
“He didn’t have a gun to his head, he should have walked away and could have told the authorities without getting into the car – this person asks him to get into the car and he gets in.
“He says in the (criminal justice social work) report that he wanted to speak to him to tell him to leave him alone.”
‘No alternative’ to custody
Sheriff Brown told Haggerty: “These are serious offences when they are taken into context.
“They are aggravated by the fact you have previous convictions, including convictions on indictment for directly analogous offences.
“However, I have listened to the full mitigation… and had it not been for that mitigation, I would have looked for a much higher starting point.
“Nonetheless, there is no alternative to a custodial sentence.”
Haggerty was sentenced to 20 months in prison and will be subject to a supervised release order for 10 months when freed from custody.
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