FabGuys user paedo soldier caged after grooming boy for sex through site

A PAEDO soldier has been caged for grooming a young boy for sex after meeting him on a gay dating website.

Alexander Gemmell met the 14-year-old child in the grounds of a derelict hospital building despite knowing he was under age.

He lured the boy to a waste ground for a secret sex session during a festive visit home to see him family.
Gemmell, 29, was jailed for 20 months and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and faces being discharged from the army in disgrace.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis told him: "The purpose of the legislation is to protect persons in their early teens.

"They are vulnerable and developing physically, emotionally and sexually.

"Their willingness to engage in this activity is neither here nor there.

"It's irrelevant.

"Very early in your communication with the complainer he indicated he was under age.

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"He tells you he is under age, but notwithstanding that you continue communicating with him for two or three days, culminating in a liaison at Murray Royal hospital.

"Effectively you were twice his age.

"It is appropriate to visit custody upon you."

Solicitor Hazel McGuinness, defending, told Perth Sheriff Court that Gemmell's discharge from the army - where he had a good record - was now inevitable.

Gemmell was arrested after the boy was suspended from school after being caught with cannabis and confessed about his illicit liaisons with several men.

The Leuchars-based soldier admitted contacting the boy through the FabGuys dating site before meeting him for sex days later, reports the Scottish Sun.

Gemmell, of Beechgrove Place, Perth, admitted sending sexual communication to the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, between 24 August last year and 24 January.

He admitted corresponding through "a gay and bisexual adult dating website for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification" and with a view to meeting the boy in person to engage in sexual intercourse.

Gemmell admitted meeting the boy on grassland at Murray Royal Hospital in Perth to engage in consensual sexual activity with him during the same time period.

Fiscal depute Carol Whyte said the boy was 13 when he was able to sign up to the FabGuys website and it led to him meeting several gay adults for sex.

The boy's activities eventually led to a specific police operation to investigate several cases of sexual assault on the child by different men.

When the boy was sent home from school for having cannabis he confessed it had been given to him by one of the men he had been meeting for sex.

Mrs Whyte told the court: "He joined the website when he was 13 and said the purpose was to meet males.

"He stated on it that he was 18.

"He told the accused his true age, or at least said he was 15, so the accused knew he was under the age of consent.

"They engaged in sexual messaging and agreed to meet for sexual contact.

"The accused arrived in a Range Rover.

"They engaged in conversation and the accused said he was due to be visiting his parents and was a soldier in the British Army."

She said they carried out a number of sex acts in the hospital grounds and when Gemmell's identity became known his room at barracks in Fife was searched.

A number of computer items were taken away for analysis and Gemmell subsequently admitted messaging the boy before meeting him for sex.

The court was told that the soldier had met the boy on a single occasion shortly before Christmas and had been arrested a short time later.

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