By David Meikle
Copyright dailyrecord
A baker who created cakes for Hollywood celebrities and Royalty is facing jail after being caught in a police paedophile sting. David Duncan, 41, replied to an online advert for female escorts but was told the girls were aged 14 and 15-years-old. He was unaware he was speaking to an undercover police officer working as part of a probe dubbed Operation Overview. Duncan baked a special 10-tiered wedding cake which featured on the red carpet alongside film stars Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell in London at the UK premiere of film You’re Cordially Invited. The married dad-of-two travelled to Motherwell , Lanarkshire, but was confronted by police when he arrived at an agreed location. He told police he had no intention of engaging in sexual activity and had planned to expose the seedy set up. Duncan, of West Linton, Peeblesshire, denied any wrongdoing and went on trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court where a jury convicted him of attempting to obtain the sexual services of a child under the age of 18. He told the jury him and his wife were not intimate and he was a regular user of escorts. Duncan, who employs nine staff at his cake business, told the court: “I know the moral situation and how this all looks and the fact that I’m a married man with two kids and I know its awful. “We’ve been together for a long time and we are best of friends but when it comes to that side of things then it’s not there but if the person I had met had been above legal age then it wouldn’t have mattered.” He added: “My worry was that these girls had potentially been trafficked and I had to get the address. “I came across this as if it was real, I thought it was a real situation.” A search of his phone revealed a note which said: “I’m going to meet a blonde 15-year-old. I will not take part in any sexual services but will give them the money as if I’m playing along. I will say ill and then leave and then report the address to the police.” Depute fiscal Rebecca Clark told jurors: “He wants you to believe that he is some modern day hero who is far better than the police and that only he could save those children. “David Duncan clearly thinks he is a very clever man and that by taking 60 seconds to write a note on his phone is all that it would take to convince the police, me and all of you that he was not trying to buy a child but I was not buying his story, the question is are you?” Kieran Clegg, defending, said: “It is a serious offence and custody will be at the forefront of the court’s mind.” Sheriff Louise Gallacher deferred sentence on first offender Duncan until November for reports and continued bail. Duncan was placed on the sex offenders’ register. Duncan designed replica cakes of the HMS Queen Elizabeth and the HMS Prince of Wales and was pictured alongside the late Queen and the then Prince Charles. Operation Overview was launched in 2022 and has led to the arrest of dozens of ‘high-harm’ threats to children in Scotland.
