A former firefighter who directed and recorded horrific sex attacks on young girls in the Philippines over the internet from his home in the Highlands has been jailed for 12 years.
Gary Campbell, 59, was arrested following an investigation by detectives in one of the country’s first cases of a Scot directing child abuse abroad.
The paedophile paid for adults in the Philippines to abuse children as young as four years old as he watched in “real-time” on a live stream more than 6,000 miles away from his home in Lochinver, Sutherland.
The filmed sex attacks included the rape of two naked girls aged eight and nine by an adult male who Campbell was told was 25.
At the time, Campbell remarked: “He is very lucky getting to do a show with these girls”.
‘Grave crimes’
The 59-year-old paid as little as £10 ahead of sessions in which prepubescent girls were molested and performed sex acts for his gratification.
Judge Lord Beckett told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: “You used the advantage of the comparative wealth of our society in order to pay people to corrupt children.
“Over a period of more than two years, you were intermittently sexually corrupting young children.
“You will appreciate these are grave crimes indeed, for which there is no alternative to a prison sentence.”
He ordered that Campbell should be under supervision for a further three years when he can be returned to jail if he breaches licence conditions.
The judge also told him that he would have faced a 15-year prison term but for his guilty pleas.
Campbell, of Windsor Court in Perth, earlier admitted 13 charges including rape, sexual assault and inciting children to become providers of sexual services.
The sex crimes were committed between June 2012 and August 2014 while he was living at Culag Gardens, Lochinver, in Sutherland.
Advocate depute Margaret Barron told the court: “On May 10 in 2021, officers from the National Child Abuse Investigation Unit in Inverness received information that, on September 23 2020, a female living in the Philippines had been arrested for producing, possessing and distributing indecent images of children and for live streaming child abuse”.
The prosecutor explained: “Information was received that the accused Gary Campbell had made payments to this woman on 13 separate occasions”.
‘What is the youngest you can get me?’
Police seized a laptop, Macbook, iPod, USB sticks and micro cards from his home and discovered that he had a Skype account with the user name ‘gary24pucket’.
The advocate depute said videos and chat logs that were recovered showed Campbell provided directions to adults in the Philippines to assault the children.
She said: “On occasion, during the live streaming of the assaults, the accused advises those broadcasting the live stream if he is having difficulty seeing the children, which results in the children and adults repositioning themselves to enable the accused to see what is being done to the children”.
The prosecutor said it indicated that Campbell was not only watching the children being abused in “real-time” but that he was directing those in the Philippines to assault the youngsters.
During one Skype conversation with a Filipina woman, he asked her: “What is the youngest you can get me?”
In the first assault that was caught on video, Campbell sent a payment of £15.96 to a woman in the Philippines who said a girl, estimated to be aged eight or nine, would provide “a show”.
The woman then exposed the child and molested her for Campbell.
During a sex act on the girl, the camera used to record the footage was shaking and Campbell could be heard breathing heavily.
In a further assault, in which police estimated the child victim was aged nine or 10, he got the naked girl to blow him kisses.
The former water treatment operative was arrested by police in June 2021 and during an interview made “no comment” replies to questions.
Defence solicitor advocate Shahid Latif said Campbell was a first-time offender who has seen a psychotherapist and undertaken work to deal with the factors that led to the offending.
He told the court: “There is no doubt he is thoroughly ashamed and disgusted by his behaviour”.
Campbell was told that he will be on the sex offenders register indefinitely following his sentencing on Friday.
‘Dangerous predator’ committed ‘utterly appalling’ crimes
Reacting to the conclusion of the case, Detective Chief Inspector Michael Smith, of the Specialist Crime Division’s Public Protection, said Campbell’s crimes were “utterly appalling”.
He added: “Gary Campbell is a dangerous predator who took advantage of some of the most vulnerable people in the Philippines over a number of years.
“The extent and nature of his offending are utterly appalling. He will now face the consequences of his despicable actions in prison.
“Protecting children online and offline is an absolute priority for Police Scotland and we are committed to building safer virtual communities for everyone.
“We want to help keep people safe online.
“We treat all reports of sexual crimes seriously and sensitively and I would encourage any victims of sexual crimes to come forward and report the circumstances, in confidence, to the police – knowing we will investigate thoroughly.
“Anyone who wants to report a crime can contact Police Scotland by calling 101.”
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