A disgraced former senior police officer turned paedophile was handed a 28 month sentence after he propositioned a young girl in a caravan park.
Ordering 61-year-old Raymond Keith Lindsay to spend half his sentence in jail and half under supervised licence conditions, Downpatrick Crown Court Judge Neil Rafferty QC praised the NSPCC run PANTS project which he said assisted "in the armouring of our children to recognise how to behave when they’re put in a compromising position by an adult."
At an earlier hearing Lindsay, a former RUC inspector with an address at Moygashel Park in Dungannon, entered guilty pleas to inciting a female child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and to breaching his court imposed Sexual Offences Prevention Order by communicating with a child at Castlewellan Forest Park on July 26 last year.
Rehearsing the facts during his sentencing remarks yesterday, Judge Rafferty described how the girl had been staying at the park with her parents and was on her way back from the toilet block when Lindsay approached her and tried to engage her in conversation.
Lindasy asked the girl to go into the bushes where he would show her his private parts, the judge outlined, adding that thankfully, the young girl “distances herself from that and reported it to her parents.”
Lindsay had been previously convicted of similar offences and breaches of his life long SOPO.
It was not opened in court, but Lindsay was first jailed in1994 when he was handed a six year sentence for 16 sex offences including indecent assault, gross indecency and indecent exposure.
He was arrested after a 70mph high-speed chase through the streets of east Belfast.
A court was later told that he used his position as an RUC Inspector to target his vulnerable victims.
His life long SOPO, which prohibits Lindsay from entering amusement arcades and beaches, and from loitering in forest parks and caravan sites, was put in place in 2012 after the he was spotted hanging around Tollymore Park in Newcastle and Kilbroney Park in Rostrevor.
In addition to the jail sentence, the judge ordered Lindsay to sign the police sex offenders register for the next ten years but told the court that having “thought long and hard” about changing the existing SOPO, he decided not to as it’s “significantly well structured.”
Speaking outside the court, the girl’s parents said they were “just glad it’s all over.”
“It’s more about making sure your child is able to come to you and tell you anything,” said the relived parents, “you have to be really open with children.”
“It could have been a whole different story. Any other child that day and it could’ve been a different story.”