Man in Thailand arrested for child sexual abuse

Ian Heddle was arrested at Edinburgh Airport on February 19, 2023 as he attempted to fly back to Asia, where he had worked as a crane operator.

Police received information that email and MeWe accounts associated with the 61-year-old had viewed and uploaded child abuse material to the Internet.

When questioned, Heddle told officers they found thousands of images and videos on his hard drives and categorised them into folders. His electronic devices were later examined and found to contain 272,936 indecent images of children and 4,001 videos.

Three videos discovered on his iPhone 12 showed Heddle abusing a young child while she slept and performing sexual acts in her presence. On June 11, Heddle admitted at the High Court in Glasgow to sexually abusing the child (believed to be around eight years old) between September and October 2019.

He pleaded guilty to two further charges, namely possessing and producing indecent images of children between August 2019 and February 2023.

On 30 July, he was sentenced to an extended term of six years’ imprisonment and four years’ pre-trial detention. He was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for an indefinite period.

Katrina Parkes, a prosecutor for sex offences at the High Court, said: “British citizens who sexually abuse children abroad are brought to justice here. Ian Heddle is a predatory individual who poses a danger to young children.”

“Where legislation allows us to prosecute child predators, we will use all available tools to ensure perpetrators are identified and brought to justice. We will continue to work with specialist police forces, international partners and cybercrime teams to track down and prosecute those who target children.

“I would urge anyone with information or knowledge of crimes of this nature to come forward and report it as soon as possible.”