A University Challenge contestant who preyed on young girls has been jailed for 16 months and branded a “nasty, perverted little spider” by a sheriff.
Andrew Newton sent indecent messages to girls as young as 12 and attempted to persuade them to meet him for sex, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
The 30-year-old – who represented St Andrews University when he appeared on the long-running BBC quiz show in 2012 – was also found to have accessed indecent images of children.
Newton, 30, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing having been found guilty of four charges by a jury earlier this year.
The former maths student was convicted of describing sexual acts to a 12-year-old girl and attempting to induce her to meet him for sexual intercourse, as well as sending her an image of a penis.
Jurors also found him guilty of describing sexual acts and making indecent comments to two other girls, both as young as 14. He asked one of them to send indecent images and tried to convince her to meet him for sexual intercourse.
Newton, of East Main Street, Broxburn, returned to the dock for sentencing on these charges as well as one of taking, permitting to be taken or making indecent images of children.
His solicitor Graham Mann told the court that his client would have been only 23 at the time of the crimes, with the charges relating to dates between 2016 and 2018, at an address in Woodlands Close, Inverness, his current home address and elsewhere.
He said: “Certain aspects of his own personal life may well have played a significant part.”
Mr Mann told Sheriff Ian Cruickshank that his client had “never been in trouble before” and had found going through the court process “an extremely sobering experience”.
He said Newton had been complying with bail conditions since his arrest and conviction, including conditions allowing inspection of his electronic devices, and had not been in any trouble since.
But Sheriff Ian Cruickshank noted how Newton had contacted the girls using a profile under a pseudonym and had subsequently consistently denied responsibility for the messages, despite damning evidence to the contrary.
He said: “You contacted two of the girls and attempted to induce them to meet with you for sexual intercourse.
“You sent one girl a picture of a naked penis when she was 12 years old.
“These are very serious offences, the communications are of tremendous concern”
‘It can be a web where predatory spiders lurk’
Noting the findings of a pre-sentencing report, Sheriff Cruickshank said Newton had been assessed as being at “high risk of sexual reconviction”.
He said: “Children and teenagers should be protected from online abuse, those who send such communications should expect to be punished appropriately.”
The sheriff told Newton that the “world wide web” provides a number of platforms for communication, which should be safe spaces for children and teenagers.
He continued: “It can be a web where predatory spiders lurk, in order to reach out and trap children. That is what you are, you are a nasty perverted little spider.”
Newton was jailed for 16 months and placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.