On 14 November 2022, William Dempster, aged 46, formerly of Lanarkshire, was sentenced at Hamilton Sheriff Court to 18 months in prison after being extradited from Thailand to face justice for possessing indecent images of children.
The court heard details regarding an investigation conducted by Police Scotland that originally culminated in Dempster’s conviction in May 2014, when officers recovered more than 60,000 indecent images of children from his possession.
Following his conviction, Dempster failed to attend his scheduled sentencing hearing at Hamilton Sheriff Court. Enquiries established that he had boarded a flight from London Heathrow Airport to Bangkok, Thailand, effectively evading UK justice as an international fugitive.
In 2021, statutory changes in Thai law enabled authorities to process Dempster’s extradition. Officers from Police Scotland’s Extradition Unit initiated an international manhunt alongside the National Crime Agency, the Royal Thai Police, and the Thailand Office of the Attorney General.
Investigating teams successfully located Dempster in the coastal city of Pattaya, leading to his arrest by local law enforcement. On Friday 23 September 2022, Dempster was formally extradited from Thailand back to Scotland.
On Monday 14 November 2022, Dempster was brought before Hamilton Sheriff Court, where the presiding sheriff imposed an 18-month custodial sentence. Dempster was additionally ordered to register on the sex offenders’ register for a period of 10 years, with all case details catalogued on the UK Register Database for public record transparency.
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