DUNFERMLINE, Scotland: A predator paedophile was sentenced to life on September 9 for abusing a seven-year-old girl whose mother he had befriended through a website chat room about Asperger's syndrome,

Neil Robertson had conned his way into a family's friendship, seduced the mother and molested her daughter. And the judge, Lord Reed, won the praise of the young victim's family for his tough stance at the High Court in Dunfermline.

The Daily Record newspaper also heralded the decision as a victory for its recent call for sentencing that the public could have faith in. The same judge sparked outrage at the same court last week when he jailed a baby rapist, James Taylor, for just five years.

On September 9, in contrast, he spent 25 minutes explaining his sentence and reasons to the court and the girl's family.

Robertson, 37, was a conman who posed as a former pilot turned psychologist and businessman.
He befriended the girl's mother through a the Asperger's chat room, Robertson claimed he could help her son, who suffered from the disorder. Within weeks, they were lovers but Robertson was also molesting the young girl and photographing himself as he abused her, storing the sickening images on his laptop computer.

Lord Reed described Robertson as a dangerous psychopath -and sentenced him to life with the condition that he must serve at least six years before being considered for parole.

He said doctors at the State Hospital, Carstairs, had concluded there was a high risk of Robertson committing further sex crimes. And Lord Reed added that there was clear evidence of Robertson grooming the victim to satisfy his lust.

He said: "He inveigled his way into her family and gained their trust by means of a clever and despicable deception which exploited an internet site set up to support families with a particular problem. The danger that the accused presents to the public at large is equally obvious."

Lord Reed said that, in fixing the "punishment part" of Robertson's sentence at six years, he was following rules laid down by Parliament.

Robertson, 37, of Troon, Ayrshire, should have been sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh last month. But the case was delayed after his solicitors ditched him -the second time his legal team had quit.

Robertson pleaded guilty at the High Court in Glasgow in June to sexually abusing the girl at her home in Fife and at his home in Ayrshire between February 2002 and January this year.

The prosecutor, Brian McConnachie, said that the girl was allowed to go alone with Robertson to his Troon home two days after Christmas.

On New Year's Day, she phoned her mother and told her she had drunk a bottle of Bacardi Breezer. The furious mother collected the girl next day and her relationship with Robertson broke down. It was then that the girl said Robertson had touched her and forced her to dance naked while he took snaps. She added that he'd also shown her indecent photographs of other children on his computer.

The solicitor-advocate, Pat Wheatley, said that Robertson accepted that his offences had been "horrendous." He added: "By the end of 2002, he was suffering from depression because a proposed business venture was falling apart at the seams. But that is not in any way an excuse or justification."

Outside the court, the girl's mother said that Robertson should have been made to wait much longer before applying for parole. "Six years - six years isn't enough," she said.

But her husband and sons said they were pleased with the life sentence and understood the judge's reasoning.

The girl's father said: "This man set out to trap a family by pretending that he could help people whose children suffered from a mental problem. He was so plausible and so normal. He must have spent years learning about child disorders, so that he could trawl internet chat rooms looking for parents like us to give his 'advice' to."

The girl was in the court building but not the court room itself as Robertson was sentenced.

Her mother said the family had had a full discussion about it but the girl had said she wanted to be there.

Robertson has a string of previous convictions for dishonesty, and had been jailed for a year in 1991 for child abduction. He was the face behind a number of fantasy airlines, none of which had got off the ground. He wore an airline captain's uniform and called himself "The Guvnor." But his only pilot's qualification was a lapsed licence he had bought in Nigeria for £60.

(Source: Daily Record, Scotland, September 10, 2003)