Serial sex offender escorted from East Lothian home after mob demands he is moved out

A child sex offender has been chased from his East Lothian home after locals learned of his crimes.

Police escort sex offender from his Ormiston home

The 62-year-old – who has a string of convictions - had to be escorted by police from a property in Ormiston on Wednesday after an angry mob gathered outside his home.

Video footage of the incident was posted on social media and showed officers escorting the man, who was carrying a red sports bag, to a waiting police vehicle as demonstrators hurled abuse at him.

The man had been moved to the house earlier this year after a similar protest saw him ousted from a small bungalow in Haddington in September after details of his criminal record were published.

One local said: “We heard a child abuser had been moved here a while back but we didn't know where he was living.

“But it came out earlier this week where he was and we parents decided we just had to do something about it.

“We can’t have that kind of person living in our tiny village where there are kids playing on most street corners.

“He was housed so close to the primary school too, which seems to me like a real danger to those children.”

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 4.20pm on Wednesday, 16 December, 2020, police received a report of a group of people gathering outside a house in Ormiston.

“Officers attended and advice was given to all concerned.”

The repeat offender had a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) placed on him in 2015 after he had been convicted of offences against women and children.

Conditions of the SOPO meant he was banned from any type of communication with children but has appeared in court several times for breaching the order.

In 2016 he was jailed for breaching the order by meeting with and tickling two young girls over a nine month period at a home in North Berwick, East Lothian.

And last year he was handed two prison sentences for befriending young schoolgirls on days out at Edinburgh Castle, the National Museum of Flight and at a church hall in Musselburgh.

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