Counter Pedophilia Investigate Unit

A preacher who stood as a Conservative candidate for Holyrood has been jailed for eight years for a 15-year campaign of child abuse.

John Smart, 48, preyed on three youngsters he met at the Edinburgh City Mission.

He began abusing one of his victims when the boy was just three years old. Judge Lady Dorrian put Smart on the sex offenders’ register and ordered him to be monitored in the community for three years after his release.

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A CHARITY has issued a desperate plea for people who would consider fostering sexually-exploited children.

Barnardo’s North East is appealing for people in Hartlepool and east Durham to offer a safe, caring and secure home to young people who have been groomed or sexually-exploited.

Applicants could be asked to look after children as young as 12 or 13 as part of the pilot scheme, run by the Department For Education’s Safer Accommodation project. (more…)