AN “ITINERANT” sexual offender described as “wandering about the country committing sexual offences” was jailed for 13 months at Dundee Sheriff Court yesterday.
Mark Alan King (40), a prisoner at Perth, committed sexual offences in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Preston since 2010, being jailed for 16 months and 28 days for the latter offence in February.
He had also been placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years at that time.
Following his release from prison, King had failed to tell police his whereabouts, the fourth time he had failed to comply with the registration requirements of the sexual offenders act.
Depute fiscal Ross Cargill told the court King had been released from HMP Liverpool in September but had failed to register an address with the police.
He was arrested in Dundee for shoplifting in October whereupon police discovered his previous convictions and his sex offending.
Solicitor Ian Houston said King was “very much an itinerant” and said he found it “somewhat strange” that his sexual offending only began in 2010.
King was originally from Birmingham and had no family in Scotland.
“For a man to start behaving in this sort of manner is very strange,” he added.
“He has a bad record for crimes of dishonesty and he has been leaving prisons with nowhere to stay.”
Mr Houston said that when King left Liverpool prison he ended up coming to Dundee as he had previously had friends here and he hoped to meet up with them.
“That proved not to be the case and he ended up living rough. He didn’t register with the police due to his lack of address,” Mr Houston said.
“He has no roots and just wanders about but I don’t believe it is a deliberate attempt to conceal his whereabouts, it’s more a lack of realisation of what his responsibilities are.”
Sheriff Gilchrist said: “This is now the fourth time he has failed to register, he’s wandering about the country committing sexual offences.
“It’s rather a sinister ‘just wandering about’.”
He added that, although his agent claimed he was not trying to conceal his whereabouts, there was “evidence is to the contrary.”
awilson@thecourier.co.uk