A former Dundee pizza shop boss tried to arrange the sexual abuse of children in sick online chats.
Depraved Samuel Foster used a social media app to ask if he could visit two girls while they were kept off school.
The 39-year-old, who ran a pair of Papa John’s franchises in the city, sent a string of vile messages to users of the Kik platform between September and November 2022.
He was actually talking to an undercover police officer.
Foster previously pled guilty to the offence and has now been placed on a community payback order.
Sick chats on apps
Dundee Sheriff Court heard how Foster, a subsea engineer who worked offshore, used the profile name “Dundee Lad” on Kik – a messenger service similar to WhatsApp.
Foster contacted an undercover officer using the name “Mark” who was pretending to be a 47-year-old man with a 13-year-old daughter.
The court was told how Foster immediately sent a number of sexually graphic messages about the man’s daughter.
They included: “Your daughter fun? Any pics of her? She sexy?”
After Foster asked about pictures, the decoy replied: “Sorry pics are what get people in trouble.”
On September 20 2022, another undercover officer using the name “Family Love” was bombarded with sick, graphic messages from the Dundee Lad account.
Foster discussed in detail how he would abuse a 10-year-old child, which he said was a “big turn on” for him.
He continued chatting with the account on September 29 2022 and said: “I’d love to meet her if you let me.
“We could have a bed day together. We all be naked in bed. She be okay getting naked in front of me?”
The conversation then moved to the Wickr app after the decoy asked if Foster was serious.
An audio call took place and Foster stated he was from Manchester and working in Scotland.
The Crown narrative stated Foster said he could visit the child on October 12 2022 if the youngster was kept off school.
The meeting was arranged but never took place due to Foster being offshore.
A further meeting was arranged but cancelled for the same reason.
Arrest and sentencing
Four days before Christmas 2022, detectives and officers from the National Child Abuse Investigation Unit attended Foster’s home to execute a warrant.
His wife answered and said he was working offshore but was due to return that day.
Foster, of Smithy Lane in Balmullo, was arrested in Aberdeen when he came onshore and gave a no comment interview.
He previously pled guilty to sending messages of a sexual nature via social media to discuss the sexual abuse of children and make arrangements to meet a user for the purposes of trying to sexually abuse a young child.
Solicitor Jim Laverty urged Sheriff Paul Brown to follow a social work report’s recommendations to place Foster, a first offender, on a community-based order.
He said: “There has already been significant personal punishment for Mr Foster but it’s entirely his fault and he shoulders responsibility for that.
“His marriage has ended. His employment has also ended and he hopes with his work ethic to be in a position to find some other form of employment.”
Mr Laverty said Foster had voluntarily participated in courses at his own expense in order to address his sexual offending.
Sheriff Brown, as an alternative to custody, imposed a community payback order comprising of the maximum 300 hours of unpaid work and three years supervision.
Foster must cooperate with the Moving Forward to Change programme for sex offenders and was made subject to stringent conduct requirements which restrict his access to devices, the internet and children.
He was also placed on the sex offenders register for five years.
Pizza franchises followed biking injury
A former propulsion technician at RAF Leuchars, Foster told The Courier in 2019 he sought out Papa John’s pizza franchises in Dundee after suffering a serious mountain biking accident in Fife.
In 2015, he was working as a subsea engineer with Transocean when he hit a tree on his bike, suffering internal bleeding and losing his spleen.
He could not work offshore for three years so opened his first Papa John’s on Dundee’s Arbroath Road in September 2016 and a second on West Marketgait followed two years later.
At the time, the two shops had 40 staff.
He was able to return to offshore work as well.
Dundee Pizzas Limited, of which he was an officer, was dissolved in August 2021.
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