Copyright dailyrecord
A baker who created cakes for Hollywood celebrities and royalty has been spared 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. The married dad-of-two travelled to Motherwell but was confronted by police when he arrived in May last year. He claimed he had no intention of engaging in sexual activity and had planned to expose the seedy set up. Duncan, of West Linton, Peeblesshire, 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. Sheriff Louise Gallacher ordered him to carry out 280 hours of unpaid work and tagged him for six months. He was placed on the sex offenders' register for five years. Duncan told the jurors he and his wife were not intimate and he was a regular user of escorts. Following his conviction he closed down his 3D Cake business which had branches in Edinburgh and Glasgow . Duncan previously 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. He also 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 and was interviewed on BBC Breakfast. Calum Turner, defending, said: "It will come as no surprise that he continues to deny the offence and any sexual motivation and his position remains the same as during the trial. "This case has had a very significant impact on his business." Sheriff Gallacher said: "You have been convicted of a very serious offence of sexual offending by attempting to obtain the sexual services of a 15-year-old child and the jury clearly disbelieved your explanation. "The threshold for custody has been met but I take into account that you do not have any previous convictions, the social work report is very positive and that you are assessed as being at very low risk of future offending." Operation Overview was launched in 2022 and has led to the arrest of dozens of 'high-harm' threats to children in Scotland.
