Paedophile tries to apologise to his 14-year-old victim

A convicted sex offender made an apology to the 14-year-old girl he assaulted just before a sheriff sent his case to the High Court for a possible life sentence.

Andrew Angus (46) grabbed the terrified teenager and pinned her against a wall, striking her on the head. It was his second offence committed against a young girl in under a year.

Angus, address listed as HM Prison Barlinnie, appeared from custody at Falkirk Sheriff last Thursday having admitted assaulting the girl at a premises in Falkirk and breaching his sexual offences prevention order on April 9.

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During proceedings Angus specifically had his solicitor Stan Quirk read out a statement of apology to the girl.

Mr Quirk said: “He wishes to apologise to the court and to the victim of this offence for his conduct. I feel the court’s powers are sufficient to deal with the matter by way of an extended sentence.”

Sheriff John Mundy said: “I have thought very carefully about this case and what the appropriate disposal is. The two choices are a lengthy custodial sentence with supervision or remit this to the High Court where a lifelong restriction to be made.

“The circumstances of this offence, the fact you have two previous convictions which involve offences in relation to children and you were subject to a sexual offences prevention order when you committed this offence lead me to remit this to the High Court.

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“It is now up to the High Court to decide whether or not to impose a lifelong restriction.”

As a form of life sentence, an Order for Lifelong Restriction can only be imposed by the High Court.

It differs from a life sentence or a long determinate sentence because a risk assessment is undertaken prior to sentence. It is often used as an option for dealing with violent, life-endangering and sexual offenders who show a propensity to commit such offences.

Last year Angus subjected another youngster, who was under the age of 13, to a sickening assault when he groped her in Falkirk Howgate Centre on March 19 and also attempted to “chat up” three girls under the age of 12.

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That offence saw him placed on a supervised community payback order for three years and ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work within 12 months and attend the Scottish Government’s Moving Forward: Making Changes treatment programme for adult male sexual offenders considered as representing a significant risk of committing similar offences in the future.

At that time it was said he was “clearly a very mixed up person” who was “ashamed and absolutely disgusted with himself”.