How Could You? Hall of Shame-Scotland-David Leggatt

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Fife, Scotland, foster parent David Leggatt, 59, “admitted raping one girl from the age of 11 and attempting to rape a three-year-old girl between May 2006 and November 2007 in Fife.

Leggatt, from Comrie, pleaded guilty to possessing more than 100,000 indecent photographs and videos of young girls.

Leggatt, who was a foster parent, had no previous convictions. At the High Court in Edinburgh, sentence was deferred for a social inquiry report.

He was remanded in custody.

Lord Bracadale continued the case to the High Court in Glasgow on 19 December and placed Leggatt on the sex offenders register.

The father of one of Leggatt’s victims said after the court proceedings: “It has just been an absolute nightmare.””

David Leggatt admits sex assaults on girls in Fife

[BBC 11/22/12]

“A foster carer who raped an 11-year-old girl and attempted to rape a three-year-old girl said he was “corrupted by the internet”.

At the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday, Dave Leggatt pleaded guilty to three charges.

He admitted raping one girl on various dates in 2011 and 2012 when she was aged between 11 and 12. The 59-year-old also admitted sexually assaulting another girl from the age of three and attempting to rape her between May 2006 and November 2007.

Legatt, from Fife, photographed and videos some of the abuse. He was found with 115,700 indecent images of children and 921 videos of children. He admitted possessing and making indecent images of children between August 2010 and August this year.

Advocate depute Gillian Wade told the court on August 3 this year Fife police received information that someone using the internet connection at Leggatt’s address was “heavily involved in the downloading of indecent images of children”.

Officers armed with a search warrant arrived and were let in by his wife Heather who called on Leggatt to join them.

Both were cautioned but as a detective began reading the warrant Leggatt said: “It’s me, it’s nothing to do with her. I’m sorry.”

He explained his computer and hard drive containing images of children was in the loft. He also went on to confess that he “interfered” with girls.

Mrs Wade said an initial examination of computer equipment found folders with girls’ names which contained indecent images of youngsters taken by Leggatt. A wide range of child pornography was also found.

One child victim interviewed by police said he would take pictures of her naked and performing sex acts. She was given rewards such as sweets for carrying out sex acts on him.

The advocate depute said: “The accused would tell her not to tell anyone or he would go to prison and he didn’t want to go to prison. She was always scared of what he was going to do.”

During an interview with detectives Leggatt admitted possessing indecent images of children and abusing two youngsters. He also revealed he had photographed another child sitting naked from the waist down.

Mrs Wade said: “He said he had looked at adult pornography on the internet and had accidentally clicked on indecent images of children. The accused went on to say that he had an interest in little girls, prepubescent age.”

He admitted that he was a continued risk but claimed it was only to one child.

Victim’s family

The family of one of the victims spoke to STV News about Leggatt, who they have known for a number of years.

Her mother described how they felt when the police told them what he had done to their daughter.

She said: “It was devastating, you are in total shock, you feel numb. She’s everything, she’s my whole world. You just kind of look at people differently.

“I trusted this person, I looked up to him, I can’t believe I have been deceived in such a way.”

When Leggatt and his partner applied to become a foster carer, the girl’s father provided a reference to social workers.

He said: “I was asked to give a reference which I had no problem doing. I remember what I said to the social workers, I told them any kids that go into a foster home, they wouldn’t get a better chance in life than going with David. Those words haunt me.

“Everything about them just seemed right, it was nice. It was a nice family place to bring up kids.”

But the family have vowed the abuse will not tear the family apart.

The father said: “He will not destroy our family, we have worked 18 years to build our family – this will not break us, if anything this will bring us closer together.”

Judge Lord Bracadale will sentence Leggatt at the High Court in Glasgow on December 19 and placed him on the sex offenders register.”

Foster carer raped 11-year-old and tried to rape three-year-old girl

[STV 11/22/12]

“The abuse came to light when police were tipped off that Leggatt was downloading child abuse images. He then admitted the sexual abuse and the family were informed by officers.

The girl’s father said the police had told them the full extent of the abuse over the course of a few weeks.

He said: “It was an absolute nightmare, a horror story. One day you are getting told something and the next day you are told something else. For two weeks solid we were waking up in the morning wondering what else we were going to get told.

“As a father, I felt as if I had let her down. It’s affected our relationship to a certain extent. I feel totally helpless.”

The mother also described how she felt when the she was told the news.

She said: “It was devastating, you are in total shock, you feel numb. She’s everything, she’s my whole world. You just kind of look at people differently afterwards.

“I trusted this person, I looked up to him, I can’t believe I have been deceived in such a way. It was absolutely horrible, a horrible time. It still is.”

The couple said their daughter does not like to talk about what happened to her but had asked to kept up to date with the court case.”

“Her father said: “She’s fully aware of what’s been happening to her but if we ask her if she wants to talk about it she just says no.

“I said to her if there was anything that Daddy could do to help her I would to anything I possibly can and she replied ‘I want you to kill him, Daddy’. I told her Daddy would go to jail for a long time if I did that and she didn’t want that.””

“”It’s almost like a death in the family, it’s heart-wrenching. So the weeks and months pass, you just learn to live with it, you always remember it but you can kind of live with it.”

When asked what sentence they though Leggatt deserved, the couple said they wanted him put away for life.

The mother said: “He’s too much of a danger to be let out. I don’t think we’ll ever get past it, we can only learn to live with it and put it to the back of our minds.””

Parents of abused girl vow abuser ‘will not destroy our family’

[STV 11/22/12 by Cara Sulieman]

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