BANGED UP: FIFE COUNCILLOR JAILED

A Fife councillor, who groomed and had months of sexual activity with a 15-year-old schoolgirl, has been jailed.

Convicted paedophile David Graham, 43, who had been a long-serving councillor in Levenmouth and a senior member of the Labour administration, was sent to prison for 27 months.

He was found guilty after trial at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court and returned there today for sentencing.

There had been street protests outside his home following the conviction.

Defence solicitor Chris Sneddon said his client still denied the offences. “He’s been of service to the community and has led a pro-social lifestyle,” he added.

He argued that there were alternative sentences to prison

available

However, Sheriff Robert More said Graham’s “culpability is very high”, adding it was “an escalating and quite brazen course of sexual behaviour towards the girl”.

He noted that Graham had been a “hard-working” local representative but that he had breached the trust placed in him by his community.

Sheriff More jailed Graham for 27 months and put him on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

Graham was handcuffed in the dock and led away to the cells before taken into a prison transport van as a small crowd gathered in the street behind the court.

Graham was the council’s spokesperson for health and social care and a member of the NHS Fife board.

He engaged in sexual activity with the girl in his home, office and car over a period of more than six months.

CCTV footage showed Graham kissing the girl in Kirkcaldy town centre after meeting for hot chocolate.

Graham would buy the girl gifts including a bracelet and necklace and they spent hours phoning and messaging each other.

He was convicted of engaging in sexual activity with a child on various occasions between February and August 2023 at locations in Fife and Edinburgh and in his car and caused her to participate in sexual activity.

The allegations came to light after a witness at a Fife bowling club saw Graham stroking the girl’s leg under a table.

During a search of Graham’s officer at the Fife Renewables Innovation Centre in August 2023, a dish cloth was seized.

The girl said Graham had used it to “clean up” after she performed a sex act on him. There was extensive staining on the cloth matching Graham’s DNA.

The girl, now 17, said the first sexual contact was in his car not long after she had turned 15.

She said she would meet him in St Andrews, go to Greggs for lunch and he stopped his car on country roads where he would grope her.

Staff at Kirkcaldy café saw them holding hands across a table and CCTV from various locations showed them walking hand-in-hand, embracing and kissing.

Graham said of the kiss caught on camera, “It’s the one moment I regret.”

He claimed his relationship with the girl was a “close friendship” and denied grooming her.

Fife Council Leader David Ross said: “This case has shocked us all and I am pleased that this means David Graham will now be disqualified from serving as a councillor on Fife Council.

“I want to pay tribute to the bravery of the young person involved in this case in coming forward and hope that today’s sentencing goes some way towards her healing process.

“David Graham should have resigned as a councillor as soon as he was convicted if not before, and his disqualification will be welcomed across the Council.”

A by-election will be held in Ward 22 (Buckhaven, Methil and Wemyss Villages) in the next few months.

Detective Inspector Graham Watson, of the child abuse investigation unit in Glenrothes, said: “Graham is a manipulative individual who groomed and sexually abused his teenage victim. He was well-known and abused his position of power when the offending took place.“