BUCK & BIRCH CO-FOUNDER RUPERT WAITES CAUGHT WITH CHILD ABUSE IMAGES
THE co-founder of wild drinks company Buck & Birch has been caught with a stash of hundreds of child abuse images on his phone.Rupert Alan Waites, 49, was found to have downloaded hundreds of pictures of young girls when police raided his home on Pinkiehill Crescent in Musselburgh last year.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told that a police cybercrime examination of the device uncovered a total of 454 images of sexually abused children aged between four and 14.
Sheriff Christopher Dickson granted the Crown motion for forfeiture of the device.
Defence agent Mark Harrower said that his client was currently engaging with the sex offenders' rehabilitation organisation Stop It Now and he would reserve full mitigation to the sentencing hearing.
Sheriff Dickson placed Waites on the sex offenders' register and deferred sentence for the preparation of a social work report and a restriction of liberty order assessment to next month.
The sheriff also said that Waites’ name would be forwarded to Scottish Ministers for consideration of whether to add it to the list of those banned from working with children and vulnerable adults.
Waites pleaded guilty to two offences of possessing and making indecent images of children at his home address between October 31, 2021, and August 12 last year when he appeared at the capital court on Thursday.
