East Lothian head chef caught with horror haul of child abuse images
An East Lothian head chef and foraging expert has been caught with a horror stash of child abuse images on his phone.
Rupert Alan Waites, 49, was found to have downloaded hundreds of pictures of young girls when police raided his home in Musselburgh, East Lothian, last year.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told a police cyber crime examination of the device uncovered a total of 454 images of sexually abused children aged between four and 14 years old.
Prosector Eilidh Grant said 433 of the still pictures - classed at Category C - were inaccessible to the user while 21 were deemed to be still accessible on the phone. Sheriff Christopher Dickson granted the Crown motion for forfeiture of the device.
Defence agent Mark Harrower said his client was currently engaging with the sex offenders rehabilitation organisation Stop It Now and would reserve full mitigation to the sentencing hearing.
Sheriff Dickson placed Waites was on the sex offenders register and deferred sentence for the preparation of a social work report and a restriction of liberty order assessment to next month.
The sheriff also said Waites’ name would be forward to Scottish Ministers to consider if his name should be added to the list of those banned from working with children and vulnerable adults.
Waites pleaded guilty to two offences of possessing and making indecent images of children at his home address between October 31, 2021 and August 12 last year when he appeared at the capital court on Thursday.
Waites was head chef with trendy Edinburgh eatery Brown’s Brasserie before co-founding Buck and Birch who have been producing award winning wild spirits, cocktails and liqueurs since 2016.
He is described as the East Lothian-based firm’s production director, master distiller, chief forager and wild flavour guru. The company’s Aelder elderberry liqueur won the Best Artisan Drinks category at the Scottish Rural Awards in 2018 and supply bars, hotels, restaurants, exclusive retailers and iconic Scottish tourist attractions.
Since learning of his conviction, the board of directors at Buck and Birch have removed Waites as a director and have accepted his resignation as an employee with immediate effect.
Tom Chisholm, co-founder of Buck & Birch, said: "This came as a total shock to all of us at Buck & Birch when we read the press yesterday. We are very disturbed by this news and the fact that my co-founder gave me no notice of events following police action against him in 2024. We've taken firm and immediate action to end our association with Mr Waites."