BAKER CAUGHT IN POLICE PAEDOPHILE STING DESIGNED CAKES FOR CELEBRITIES
A baker who created cakes for Hollywood celebrities and Royalty is facing jail after being caught in a police paedophile sting.David Duncan, 41, replied to an online advert for female escorts but was told the girls were aged 14 and 15-years-old.
He was unaware he was speaking to an undercover police officer working as part of a probe dubbed Operation Overview.
He baked a 10-tiered wedding cake which appeared on the red carpet alongside film stars Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell at the UK film premiere.
The married dad-of-two traveled to Motherwell, Lanarkshire, but was confronted by police at an arranged meeting.
He maintained he had no intention of engaging in sexual activity and was planning to expose the setup.
He told the jury that him and his wife were not intimate, and he was a regular user of escorts.
Duncan, who employs nine staff at his cake business, explained: "I know the moral situation and how this all looks and the fact that I'm a married man with two kids and I know its awful." "We've been together for a long time and we are best of friends but when it comes to that side of things then it's not there but if the person I had met had been above legal age then it wouldn't have mattered." He also expressed concern that the girls might have been trafficked, saying: "My worry was that these girls had potentially been trafficked and I had to get the address." He claimed he thought the scenario was real, saying: "I came across this as if it was real, I thought it was a real situation." A note found on his phone revealed: "I'm going to meet a blonde 15-year-old.
I will not take part in any sexual services but will give them the money as if I'm playing along.
I will say I'll and then leave and then report the address to the police." Depute fiscal Rebecca Clark criticized Duncan's story, stating: "He wants you to believe that he is some modern day hero who is far better than the police and that only he could save those children." His defender acknowledged the seriousness of the offense, noting that Duncan has gone on trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court and that the court was deferring sentence until November for reports.
Duncan was placed on the sex offenders' register.
The court heard Duncan designed replica cakes of the HMS Queen Elizabeth and the HMS Prince of Wales and was pictured with the late Queen and Prince Charles.
Operation Overview, launched in 2022, has resulted in the arrest of numerous threats to children across Scotland.
Update 04-11-2025 Sheriff Louise Gallacher ordered him to carry out 280 hours of unpaid work and tagged him for six months.
He was placed on the sex offenders' register for five years.
Sheriff Gallacher said: "You have been convicted of a very serious offence of sexual offending by attempting to obtain the sexual services of a 15-year-old child and the jury clearly disbelieved your explanation.
"The threshold for custody has been met but I take into account that you do not have any previous convictions, the social work report is very positive and that you are assessed as being at very low risk of future offending."
