KEVIN INNES FROM MORAY SENTENCED AFTER BAIL BREACH AND SEX OFFENCES IN ELGIN

In February 2016, Kevin Innes, a man with a troubling history linked to Moray, appeared before Elgin Sheriff Court to face charges related to breaching bail conditions and previous sex offences. The proceedings were marked by emotional scenes as Innes, aged 33 at the time, was visibly overwhelmed and sobbing in the dock as the judge handed down his sentence.

Innes’s criminal history includes a notorious case from 2012, where he was convicted of grooming underage girls through social media platforms. During that period, he used Facebook to persuade young girls into sending him explicit images, a pattern of behavior that drew significant concern from law enforcement authorities. Despite being convicted, Innes narrowly avoided a prison sentence at that time, provided he adhered to strict bail conditions, which mandated that he disclose details of all electronic devices in his possession to police.

However, the authorities remained vigilant. In October of the previous year, police officers assigned to monitor Innes’s compliance discovered that he had secretly hidden a mobile phone beneath a stone slab in his back garden in Lossie, a town within Moray. This discovery was a clear breach of his bail conditions, which required him to surrender all electronic devices and cooperate fully with police oversight. Innes later admitted to breaching these conditions, not only at his former residence in Lossie Cottages, Elgin, but also on Pansport Road and at the local post office in Elgin.

During the court hearing, Innes appeared on remand from Inverness Prison, visibly distressed and crying uncontrollably as the judge, Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov, sentenced him to 330 days in prison for violating his bail conditions. The prosecution, represented by Fiscal Roderick McAllister, outlined that between December 2014 and October of the previous year, police had conducted numerous unannounced visits to Innes’s residence. Despite his repeated assurances that he had not breached his bail, officers found evidence to the contrary.

Specifically, during a search of his garden in October, police uncovered a mobile phone and two SIM cards, which Innes claimed to have found near his home. He maintained that upon activating the phone, he discovered it was logged into another person’s Facebook account. His legal representative argued that Innes led a largely isolated life and that his interest in Facebook was purely a hobby, not related to any further criminal activity. Nonetheless, the court recognized the seriousness of his breach and the potential risk posed by his actions.

Innes’s previous conviction from 2012 involved a series of disturbing offences against underage girls in Moray. He had admitted to luring young girls online, including coaxing a 15-year-old girl to expose herself via webcam, and following a teenage girl around a park while secretly filming her. In his statement to police, Innes claimed that his offending was driven by feelings of boredom, depression, and sexual frustration. These offences led to his placement on the sex offenders register for three years and the imposition of a sexual offences prevention order, which prohibited him from contacting girls under 16 and restricted his internet usage.

Despite the gravity of his past crimes, Innes was not sentenced to immediate imprisonment for the 2012 offences. Instead, he was placed under a three-year community payback order, supervised by social workers, as part of his sentence. The court acknowledged the distinction between his initial offences and his recent breach of bail conditions but emphasized the importance of strict supervision to prevent further harm. The case underscores ongoing concerns about the management and monitoring of convicted sex offenders within the Moray region, especially those with histories of online grooming and related offences.