A sex offender with hopes of living in Peterhead following his release from prison has been jailed again for breaching his court order by contacting women online.
Sandy Ross, who is not allowed to speak to women on the internet or electronically without notifying the police, was back in the dock last week.
At an earlier hearing of the case against him, the 32-year-old who is currently on remand in HMP Grampian, admitted to adding two women to Facebook group chats so he could speak to them, and to causing a teenager fear and alarm when he showed up brandishing a weapon at her door.
Sentence had been deferred for background reports until last Friday.
Contacted women within days of release
And last week, the court heard Ross has a laundry list of previous convictions, including multiple breaches of his sex offender orders, stalking, and domestic assaults.
His most recent conviction, which saw him jailed on October 5, 2023, was for possession of a bladed weapon and assault with a weapon.
He was released from that sentence on May 17 2024, to the Macduff area, but would find himself back in trouble just a day later when an unannounced home visit by officers uncovered contact details for multiple women on his mobile phone.
Despite his claims they were for “friends and ex-partners”, two of the women would go on to tell police they had no knowledge of Ross at all.
Fiscal depute Brian Young said: “The first noted she had no previous knowledge of the accused and his RSO (registered sex offender) status, and that she had been added to a private Facebook messenger app group along with other unidentified females set up by the accused.
“The second identified female also confirmed that she did not know the accused, however, had spoken with him via a Facebook group chat.”
A month later, on June 16, Ross would turn his attention to a 17-year-old girl whom he had been in a nine-day relationship.
Following their split, and after being denied entry into her flat, he showed up at her door wielding a metal pipe. She called police when he began banging on her door.
During his arrest, Ross spun a tale about being a traveller.
Mr Young said Ross claimed: “All I says to the complainer is that I’m a traveller and that I would get other travellers to come to her door and get the other boys she had out of her flat.
“It is not a metal pole, it is an aluminium pole from a Hoover. It wasn’t an offensive weapon.”
He also denied hitting the door with the pipe.
‘Address available for him in Peterhead’
Ross’ defence solicitor, Andrew Ormiston, said he was now identified as a “high risk offender” but had already spent about 11 months in remand for the case.
“He advises that at the time of the commission of these offences he was not taking his prescribed medication and was self-medicating,” he added.
“I would invite the court to take into account the period of time he has spent on remand. I would ask the court to consider whether it may be in everyone’s best interests for Mr Ross to be dealt with in a way that actually secures supervision for him in the community rather than further time in custody.”
Mr Ormiston also suggested Ross could set up in Peterhead following his release, stating: “He advises that he has been made aware that there is an address available for him in Peterhead when he is ultimately released.”
That release, however, was denied to him.
Custody only option for Ross
Taking into account the time Ross had already spent in prison for the charges against him, Sheriff Ian Wallace imposed a sentence of 12 months and triggered an unexpired portion of his last jail term – from October last year – to keep him locked up.
The sheriff said he was “satisfied” that custody was the correct disposal in his order.
“I am satisfied only a custodial sentence would be appropriate for these offences given your record, the nature of these offences, and the information provided in the social work report,” he said.
In effect, the order will keep Ross behind bars for 200 days.