SENTENCING STATEMENTS

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PF v Janpreet Singh

Jun 5, 2025

At Paisley Sheriff Court today, Sheriff Gill took the unusual and exceptional step of granting Janpreet Singh an absolute discharge after she was not satisfied there was any criminality involved in this case.

In court, Sheriff Gill made the following comments:

"Mr Singh you pled guilty to recording mobile footage of a child unknown to you in a park.

I’ve been told that you were in the park with another male. A witness saw you filming children in the park. He alerted witness Montgomery who was in the park with his partner and his child. Witness Montgomery approached you and started recording you. You left the park.

Witness Montgomery contacted the police. They attended at the locus obtained statements and were shown the recording taken by witness Montgomery. Your image was uploaded on social media viewed over 20,000 which appears to have caused huge concern within the local community.

Your sister saw your image on social media and contacted the police, she told the police that she didn’t know you had done anything wrong. You were arrested by the police and cautioned. You told police, ‘’it was by chance, that you had said sorry many times and that you had 2 other videos.’’

There was one video recording of a child. The other 2 were of the park and swans.

You were arrested and kept in custody over a weekend.

I initially called for background reports, those are not available. No fault can be attributed you for the lack of a report, however, I don’t intend to continue this case again.

I have had time to reflect on this matter.

You are 27-years-old, have no previous convictions. You live in India and came to Scotland to visit your sister. You went to Barshaw Park, you recorded videos and intended to send them to your family in India. I don’t believe there was anything more to it than that. As a consequence of these proceedings you have chosen not to go home.

Given the Crown narrative and your explanation as to how the child was recorded by you, I do wonder why you pled guilty to this charge. I also question why your image was uploaded on social media, which in itself seemed to have caused huge concern in the local community that there was an Asian male in the park who may be a ‘’paedophile’’.

I was going to admonish you, but I am going to take the unusual and exceptional step, not to proceed to conviction and grant you an absolute discharge. I intend to correct my minute from the court on 15 May 2025 to that effect. The reason for that is that I am not satisfied there was any criminality involved here. That is the end of the matter."

5 June 2025