A paedophile was caught with scores of videos featuring young girls who were unaware they’d been recorded in Aberdeen city centre, a court has heard.
Greig Dow, 41, admitted a series of charges concerning images and videos found on his devices when police raided his home in September 2019.
They uncovered more than 5,500 indecent images of children and over 19 hours of video footage.
There were even recordings featuring Dow and a girl aged between seven and nine years old and videos of teenage girls that he had recorded around the city.
The footage, which featured the unsuspecting young girls, focused on intimate parts of their bodies or their tight-fitting clothing.
19 hours and 44 minutes of disturbing videos
Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that police had a search warrant for Dow’s home on September 5 2019 after receiving worrying intelligence.
A number of confiscated devices held a total of 5,583 indecent images of children and videos with a combined duration of 19 hours and 44 minutes.
The images spanned April 30 2008 to December 21 2022.
Around 5,537 images were of the least serious Category C, but six images and 11 videos were Category B and two videos were the most severe Category A.
However, as cybercrime officers went through the footage they discovered videos featuring Dow and a girl aged between seven and nine who he had sexually assaulted between 2011 and 2013.
Accused kisses child before making ‘devil horns’ gesture in video
During a series of videos that last several hours, Dow is seen embracing the child, placing her on his lap and squeezing her buttocks.
In another video, he kisses her on the mouth for around a minute, while in other videos he is seen kissing the child before making a “devil horns” gesture to the camera or punching the air in celebration.
Videos that show Dow focusing the camera on the child’s buttocks or crotch area were also discovered.
When interviewed by the police about the incidents, the girl said she had no recollection of the events taking place.
During his own police interview, Dow claimed that the touching was “playful and not sexual”.
On Dow’s devices, officers also found footage that he’d recorded of young girls on Union Street and St Nicholas Street in Aberdeen.
A series of videos showed him focusing on the buttocks of teenage girls, especially ones wearing shorts or tight leggings.
The girls appear unaware they are being filmed and, on one occasion, Dow filmed a mum and her young daughter until the woman appears to look directly into the camera, at which point the camera suddenly focuses on Union Street.
During an unannounced home visit in March last year, officers discovered that Dow had downloaded the MEGA cloud storage and file hosting app onto his phone without notifying police – breaching the notification requirements of the sex offenders register.
Dow pled guilty to various charges
A further 226 images and video files were found that showed 45 instances when Dow had followed young girls close to Beach Boulevard, Aberdeen, where he again focused on their buttocks.
Appearing in the dock on Monday, Dow pled guilty to one charge of sexually assaulting an underage child.
He also admitted to a second charge of making video recordings of an underage child and pled guilty to a third charge of downloading indecent images of children.
Dow also pled guilty to a charge of conducting himself in a disorderly manner by filming young girls around Aberdeen and a final charge of breaching the registration requirements.
His defence solicitor, Bruce MacDonald, asked for reports into Dow’s background to be produced.
Mr MacDonald said that his client had already “been remanded for the equivalent of 16 months” in prison.
He also added that the sexual abuse the girl in the videos had suffered “had no noticeable impact on her”, but admitted that on a number of occasions Dow’s behaviour “did cross a line”.
“He took it hard that that was something that he had to own up to,” Mr MacDonald said.
Sheriff Andrew Miller told Dow that he didn’t consider it “appropriate” to grant him bail.
“I’m concerned by the number and nature and the time scale of these offences that involve historic incidents involving this young child,” he added.
Deferring sentence on Dow until next month, Sheriff Miller ordered a criminal justice social work report and a restriction of liberty order assessment to be carried out.
He also placed Dow, whose address was given as the prison HMP Grampian, on the sex offenders register.
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