East Lothian paedophile youth football coach and NHS manager jailed for fifth time for sex offences
A paedophile youth football coach has been jailed for the fifth time for sickening sex offences against children and breaching court orders.
Craig Raeburn was caught trying to hide a computer containing images of youngsters being raped when police officers visited his home in Haddington, East Lothian, earlier this year.
Raeburn, 60, initially denied owning the electronic tablet when confronted by the constables but eventually confessed he had stashed the device in his kitchen and was forced to hand it over.
An examination of the device was carried out and horror pictures depicting the sexual abuse of children were found including four at Category A - the most depraved end of the spectrum.
The former NHS manager has been caged on four previous occasions for possessing indecent images of children, sending sex pics to a teenage boy and breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order [SOPO].
He admitted the latest offences when he appeared from custody at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month and was back in the dock for sentencing today, Friday, August 15.
Defence agent Andrew Docherty said: “Mr Raeburn is fully aware of the sentence the court will have in mind due to his previous offences.”
The lawyer added Raeburn had shown “insight and self-reflection” into his behaviour while in custody.
Sheriff Christopher Dickson said: “These are both serious offences set against the background of analogous offending. There is only one appropriate way of dealing with you and that is a custodial sentence.”
Raeburn was sentenced to a 20 month jail term backdated to his remand date in January and placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
Raeburn pleaded guilty to breaching the SOPO conditions by owning a device he had not declared, and to possessing indecent images of children on January 21 this year.
Previously prosecutor Xander van der Scheer told the court Raeburn was “a high risk” sex offender who was being managed by police after being placed on a five year SOPO for a previous offence in March 2022.
The court heard the order’s conditions included police officers attending his home on unannounced visits and checking if he had any devices to access the internet. The fiscal depute said officers carried out “a routine check” and spotted a black electronic tablet leaning against a sofa on January 21 this year.
Raeburn, who was a children’s football coach when he first offended, was seen to quickly scoop up two blankets from the couch and take them into the kitchen. The constables then noted the electronic tablet was missing and demanded he hand it over.
The court was told Raeburn, a father of two, denied any knowledge of the device but eventually confessed to owning it. Mr van der Scheer said a cyber crime examination had discovered 31 child sexual abuse images including four Category A, 14 Category B and a further 13 rated at Category C.
Raeburn was previously jailed for 14 months when he was caught with around 1400 child abuse images in 2016. He was subsequently sacked from his position as a practitioner services manager with the NHS following the conviction.
Just weeks after his release from custody he was snared in an online paedophile hunter sting when he sent images of his penis and sexualised comments to an adult decoy on Skype and WhatsApp. He was jailed again for 20 months and placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years following the incident in 2018.
Raeburn was then given a 15 month sentence the following year when he admitted breaching the SOPO when he was caught attempting to search for men on the gay social media app Grindr.
And the serial offender was back in court in 2023 after he was caught Googling his own name on an illicit device he had not informed police he owned. He was initially fined £1000 by a sheriff but that sentence was appealed by the Crown and the High Court of Judiciary quashed the financial penalty and judges imposed 12 months custody.