A former youth football coach who called himself the Loch Ness Monster has been jailed for raping a girl in his car. Lee Murray has been given a seven-year sentence for his abuse of the youngster.
The paedophile sent the teenager messages containing graphic sexual content, called her his “wee girl” and “babe”, said she was “so cute” and that he couldn’t “f****** wait to see” her.
Another message sent to the girl by Murray, who was head coach for Thistle Girls FC, read: “I hate every minute and every second of every day because I know I go down if we get caught.”
The 53-year-old also sent naked selfies to the girl and told her: “As much as it is so dam wrong we also know we have something special between us.”
He also convicted of communicating indecently with an older child and caused them to look at a sexual image, attempting to communicate indecently with a child and attempting to cause a child to look at a sexual image.
Murray, of Inverness, was convicted following a trial at the High Court in the northeastern city earlier this year and appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh today to be sentenced.
He had been convicted of rape and other sexual offences and sentencing had been deferred for the court to obtain a report on Murray’s background.
On Tuesday, defence advocate Mark Stewart KC told the court that his client knew he would have to go to prison. Judge Lord Sandison jailed Murray for five years.
He also ordered him to be supervised by the authorities for two years following his release from custody and made him the subject of a three-year-long non harassment order preventing Murray from contacting the girl he raped.
Passing sentence, Lord Sandison said: “I have taken account everything which has been said on your behalf. You will be aware that because of the gravity of your offending only a custodial sentence is appropriate in these circumstances.”
The offences took place between January 2021 and October 2022 and jurors heard Murray took the teenage girl to locations in and around Inverness for sex in his car.
Following his arrest, police officers recovered photos sent by Murray – one of the images showed him in a state of arousal and another where he was topless with his tongue out.
The father of Murray’s victim also gave evidence during the trial. The court heard he had learned about his daughter’s contact with Murray from a third party.
Asked how she had reacted, the father said: “(She) was emotionally distraught. She was crying, she was hysterical, she was on the floor. She was completely broken.”
The jury also heard from a woman who was contacted online by Murray while she was posing as a 14-year-old girl. He was on bail at the time.
The 40-year-old – who worked with a voluntary child protection group – had set up a decoy profile on the app Wink, which markets itself as a tool for “dating and friends”.
Murray, then 51, contacted the profile and was immediately told that he was speaking with a 14-year-old named Scarlet. After moving the conversation to WhatsApp, Murray sent images of Loch Ness and said: “No, I am not the monster; well I could be.”
The woman passed her dossier on to the head of her organisation and a “sting” was then arranged with a similar group in Glasgow, who confronted Murray in the street the passed their evidence to police.
During the video, Murray told the volunteers who confronted him: “I told myself I shouldn’t be doing it” and called his actions “disgusting”. Lord Sandison also placed Murray on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.
Speaking after he was sentenced, Scotland’s Procurator Fiscal for High Court Sexual Offending, Katrina Parkes said: “Lee Murray held a position of trust within the local community while committing this horrific sexual offending.
“He poses a danger to children and will now have to face the consequences of his actions. COPFS prosecutors are committed to securing justice in child sexual abuse cases. I would urge anyone aware of or affected by similar crime to report it and seek support.”
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