A convicted paedophile who told police children “enjoyed” being abused has been removed from his home in East Kilbride following a protest by a vigilante group on the street.
Mark Williamson, 35, was given a two-year supervision order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for the same duration, but avoided jail, when he was sentenced at Hamilton Sheriff Court in May 2019. The court previously heard that nearly 5000 indecent images and video clips were found on devices belonging to Williamson, who admitted downloading and possessing child porn between January 2012 and June 2018.
Protest outside property
Williamson, whose internet history at the time showed searches for ‘pre-teens,’ was led from a property in the South Lanarkshire town by a number of uniformed officers at around 8.30pm on Monday, September 28. In a clip shared by the ‘Awareness Protection Group,’ an angry crowd could be heard yelling “scumbag,” “dirty paedo,” and “fat waster” at Williamson as he was placed in the back of a police van.
One organiser could be heard shouting: “Indecent images of children? Covering your face? Scumbag,” while others fumed: “You come back, we'll be back”. The hooded predator was dressed in black clothing and carried just a backpack as he was escorted from the premises.
Background of the case
His sick predilection was uncovered after police raided a flat in Blantyre where he was staying in June 2018. Williamson told police that a “distinction should be drawn between teenagers and those under the age of 12,” but said he had “stumbled upon” images while searching online for music.
Fiscal depute Paula Russell said girls featured in images downloaded by Williamson “could have been as young as four”. Ms Russell had previously told how Williamson had stressed he was “not sexually aroused by them” but had a “persistent, morbid curiosity”. She added: “He said he did not enjoy seeing children in pain and could not tell from the images whether or not they were. Their faces were often covered, but possibly in some images the children appeared to be enjoying it.”
Sentencing and aftermath
Williamson’s defence said his client “clearly has issues” but had “co-operated with social work” so far and would “continue to do so”. Diarmid Bruce added: “My client pleaded guilty at the first diet stage. It’s a serious matter and he knows his conduct was unacceptable.” Sentencing Williamson, Sheriff Thomas Miller said he was “willing to go with” the recommendations in the “very full report” he had been presented with.
Williamson has also been banned from owning any device with Internet access unless it had the ability to store a search history that could not be deleted. In 2019, the Record reported on a pensioner who said she feared her house could be firebombed after it was wrongly targeted in a vigilante paedophile attack. The gran was left petrified after the word ‘BEAST’ was daubed across her front window two months after Williamson was sentenced. The resident said she was certain the intended target was the convicted paedophile, who lived just a few doors down.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Around 8.30pm on Monday, 28 September, 2026, we received a report of a group of people gathered outside addresses in East Kilbride. The group dispersed without issue. There were no arrests."
