Tayside Police have defended their monitoring of high-risk sex offenders following the conviction of a high-profile paedophile who assaulted a young girl in Perth.
However, the force declined to comment on the circumstances that saw John Nicoll free to strike despite monitoring and warnings from the community in which he lived.
Nicoll plied a 13-year-old with alcohol before abusing her at an address in the town in July 2009, just a month after officers seized computers packed with child abuse images from his home.
The paedophile, now aged 30, had fled to Perth after his release from a two-year prison sentence in the United States. Born in Germany to Scots parents, he had been living in Wake County, North Carolina, when he was convicted of breaking into a house and sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl.
From the moment he arrived to set up home with his father in Perth in 2008 he was under the scrutiny of the authorities. In fact, Nicoll was considered such a threat that in 2010 Tayside Police took groundbreaking court action to keep tabs on him.
Chief Constable Justine Curran moved to have him made subject to the conditions of the sex offenders register and then to have him officially placed on the list. The move would have increased the scrutiny under which he could be placed, but by the time the order was granted Nicoll had already committed two serious offences.
He was first imprisoned for 12 months in August 2010 after admitting possession of 1,300 images of child pornography, found on his computer at his home in Perth in June 2009. This week he was jailed once again, this time for 42 months and with an extended sentence of 27 months upon his release, after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. That attack took place just a month after officers raided his home.
As he was jailed there were calls from politicians for tougher sentencing and stricter monitoring of sex offenders, and anger from the Perth community.
In a lengthy statement to The Courier, Detective Chief Superintendent Craig Suttie said Tayside Police could not comment on Nicoll’s case. However he stressed the efforts to protect the public from sex offenders and ensure they do not reoffend.
Mr Suttie said: ”We do appreciate that the concerns of the public with regard to sex offenders living within the community.
“When someone who has committed sexual offences has been dealt with by the courts and served any prison sentence given to them, they will live within the community. That does present significant challenges, but Tayside Police, together with local authorities, Scottish Prison Service, health and other partners under the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), will work to manage high-risk offenders within the community to try to ensure that the appropriate safety and support mechanisms are in place.”
He added: ”It is widely recognised that stable accommodation is vital to the supervision and management of sex offenders and effective monitoring makes a key contribution to minimising risks that sex offenders under MAPPA may pose. Many do not reoffend and live in the community without causing further harm to others in the neighbourhood.
”Although no guarantees can be made about an offender’s future actions, the public is far better protected where that offender is in stable accommodation, in contact with the relevant services and agencies and complying with any conditions that might apply. An offender who is forced out of a community could disappear, severing contact with the police and probation services.”
The North Carolina Department of Correction’s records reveal Nicoll has convictions for ”indecent liberties with a child” and ”burglary”, with speeding, resisting arrest and drugs offences.
Residents contacted The Courier to raise concerns about the threat he posed. One local, who asked not to be named, said those warnings should have been heeded sooner.
They said: ”This man had convictions from the USA and we were worried that he would strike again. We did not want him walking around our community we wanted to know that our children would be safe.
”Something needs to be done to ensure that this cannot happen again.”