18-month order for Kirk elder who touched girl, 15

A police officer and Kirk elder, who sexually assaulted a 15-year old girl in a cinema during a church youth group outing, has been placed, under supervision, on a Community Payback Order for 18 months,

Steven Kellock was a Kirk elder at Dunbar Parish Church. Picture: Greg Macvean

He was ordered to take part in a course of behavioural therapy and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years.

Forty-year old Steven Kellock, a constable with the former Lothian & Borders force, pled guilty previously at Edinburgh Sheriff Court to repeatedly touching the girl on her arm, legs and breasts over her clothing and touching her stomach under her clothing, at the Vue Cinema at the Ocean Terminal, Leith, on December 16 last year. Sentence was deferred for background reports until today.

Sheriff Roderick Macleod told Kellock, who now lives in North Berwick, his actions had had punitive consequences for himself. “Your marriage is over and your career destroyed “ he said. “I credit you with having taken full responsibility for this and co-operating fully in the investigation into this matter and pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity. Therefore I can deal with this by way of a Community Payback Order”.

Sheriff Macleod told Kellock that if he co-operated fully with the Order: “That will be the end of the matter”.