January 2015
Child rapist who filmed abuse of girls told police: ‘Just shoot me’
A child rapist who filmed his abuse of two young girls told police: “Just take me out and shoot me”.
Michael Harris preyed on his victims, one aged just two, at his family home in Dunfermline, Fife.
The 60-year-old account manager was caught when a colleague found a video clip on a memory stick belonging to Harris.
Police eventually uncovered a hoard of more than 275,000 indecent photos and film that Harris had stored.
The first offender is now behind bars after he pled guilty to rape, abuse and indecent images charges at the High Court in Glasgow.
Father-of-two Harris showed no emotion as he was led handcuffed to the cells to await sentencing next month.
The court heard how the abuse was discovered in September last year after Harris offered a work-friend a loan of his USB stick.
The colleague later discovered a film saved on it of Harris at home abusing a young girl. This man immediately informed bosses before police were alerted.
Harris was detained at work leading to his home being searched. Prosecutor Martin Macari said officers discovered “an unusually high amount of indecent content”.
Some had been stored under names like “Alice in Wonderland” and “Playtime”. The court heard that Harris was seen in one clip raping a two year-old girl as she slept.
Other footage showed him abusing the same child when she was older up to the age of seven.
Harris also targeted another young girl at his home from when she was around three until she was eight.
He finally filmed a third child naked in the bath, starting when she was six months. But, the court heard there was “no footage of contact offending” with this girl.
Police found a total of 275,325 still indecent photos and 1252 video clips. These were a mixture of footage Harris had taken himself and others downloaded from the internet.
Harris initially denied to police being a paedophile before going on to claim he was “stupid”. He later went on to state: “Just take me out and shoot me.”
Asked why he had done “bad things”, Harris went on: “It is difficult to understand sometime. I’m just weird.”
Harris pled guilty to raping one girl and two charges of using lewd and libidinous practices against her between 2009 and 2014.
He also admitted to a further two allegations of lewd and libidinous conduct against the second girl between those dates.
Harris pled guilty to a separate charge under the Sexual Offences Act for filming the third girl in the bath.
He finally admitted two charges of having indecent images of children dating between 1996 and 2014.
Gordon Martin, defending, said: “He is devastated by his actions. He can only say sorry.” Lord Bannatyne deferred sentencing until next month for reports.
