Inverness paedophile rapist’s prison term almost doubled after appeal rules original High Court sentence ‘unduly lenient’

A paedophile who groomed a girl and later raped her when she was 15 has had his sentence nearly doubled after the original judge’s five year sentence was ruled “unduly lenient”.

Lee Murray (53), who was a football coach in Inverness, was jailed at the High Court in September last year after being found guilty of the rape and a trio of other charges.

But prosecutors appealed the short length of that sentence, arguing the judge, Lord Sandison, had erred when determining the duration of Murray’s incarceration.

And following that appeal, Murray - who began grooming the girl when she was 12 or 13 - has had his prison sentence extended to nine years, with a further three ‘extension’ years to follow on from that.

Making her appeal ruling, judge Lady Dorrian said: “Had the judge [Lord Sandison] taken appropriate account of all of the factors which he should have, he ought to have imposed a significantly higher sentence.”

She continued: “The sentence imposed by the trial judge… does not recognise the serious nature of the offending, for which there are no material mitigating factors. It does not reflect the presence of significant degrees of manipulation and grooming. It was unduly lenient and a different sentence should have been passed.”

She added that it was also “unduly lenient” for some of the sentences to be made to run concurrently with those of others in the case, adding that the offending in two of the charges “was separate from that” in the others, and “also indicated the persistent nature of [Murray’s] sexual interest in underage girls”.

Murray’s offending came to light when he was exposed by a paedophile vigilante group.

The original trial at the High Court in Inverness heard that, as well as the later rape, he had sent the same child indecent images of himself and inappropriate messages while proposing to meet up with her.

He was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting her in his vehicle on various occasions in the Inverness area.

While on bail for that offence, the former Thistle Girls FC head coach sent sexual messages to an adult female, who was posing as a 14-year-old girl on a social media app.

Murray, who believed he was talking to the underage child, then engaged in a video call on WhatsApp where he indecently exposed himself to the same person.

When he was later confronted by the paedophile vigilante group he branded his own actions ‘disgusting’.

The offending took place between January 2021 and October 2022.

Increasing Murray’s sentence, the appeal found that Lord Sandison had “failed to recognise the pattern of grooming behaviour blatantly apparent from the evidence, and the way in which grooming can affect the perceptions of the groomed”.

They added: “In our view the trial judge erred in his categorisation of [Murray’s] conduct, and in his approach to the fact that [the girl] had believed herself to be consenting [at the time of the offence].”

In fact, during the court case Murray’s victim had given a statement detailing the negative effects that Murray’s sexual abuse had had on her life.

Lady Dorrian continued: “In his appeal report the judge [Lord Sandison] describes [the girl] as having ‘participated willingly and enthusiastically in [the sexual conduct] and had enjoyed it’.

“This does not, it seems, reflect anything which was actually said by her in any part of her evidence, and instead reflects a conclusion drawn by the judge from the sexualised, and apparently encouraging, nature of certain messages sent by [the girl] in response to messages from the respondent.

“The judge stated that he did not regard these features as specifically mitigatory, but it seems clear that he treated them as such.”