A businessman who repeatedly drove across the Border from England to groom a Scottish schoolgirl for sex was jailed for two years yesterday.
Car company boss Matthew Kelsey, 32, posed as a teenager to gain the trust of his vulnerable 14-year-old victim, plied her with presents, and called her his “Pumpkin” and “Princess”.
Then he coaxed her into the back of a van, which he had fitted out with a rug and a bed, and had sex with her twice, Falkirk Sheriff Court was told.
He even met her mother and told her he was 14.
When her besotted daughter told her mum what she believed was the truth – that Kelsey was a 19-year-old called Alan Thomas – she called the police.
The court heard Kelsey – from Brough in Yorkshire –first made contact with the girl through Facebook Messenger in March 2019, and before long they were messaging each other several times a day.
After role-playing sex on Facebook with the girl, he met her for the first time in August last year, driving up to Cowie, Stirlingshire, where the offences took place.
Sheriff Christopher Shead said: “A custodial sentence is appropriate.”
