DON'T LET MY ABUSER ESCAPE SEX OFFENDER REGISTER

Call for paedophile's Australian restrictions to be extended to Scotland

- JOHN DINGWALL

A CONVICTED paedophile who runs a Scottish B&B should be placed on the sex offenders' register, insists one of his victims.

Gary Bloom, 69, was a primary school teacher in Australia in 1985 when he sexually assaulted 10-year-old Stewart Carter.

Bloom later emigrated to Scotland but after he returned to Australia for a family visit in 2021, he was arrested.

Despite being found guilty to three separate charges of indecent assault, he walked free and was able to return to Scotland.

Stewart, now 49, said: "The fact that Bloom has been allowed to lawfully return to Scotland means it would be sensible for him to be placed on the sex offenders' register.

"That would be an ideal.

"I can't see why he should escape those obligations by simply being in another country.

"He's a convicted child sex offender who has unfettered access to children who stay at the B&B."

 Stewart contacted Police Scotland about Bloom, who runs a guest house in Aberdeen and was placed on the sex offenders' register in his homeland for life.

He said: "I wanted to know if there was a way in which Bloom could experience the same restrictions as he would if he lived in the State of Victoria.

"Things such as having to report his whereabouts and submit his DNA. The police in Scotland said he was not known to them."

Stewart was just 10 when Bloom began to abuse him.

He said: "I was sexually abused by Gary Bloom, who was a neighbour of mine.