A Scottish drag queen who co-authored a guide for “trans youth” for a major LGBT charity has been convicted of distributing child pornography. Andrew Easton, from Kennethmont, Huntly, was spared an immediate prison sentence despite knowingly communicating online with a 13-year-old boy and asking him for indecent images.
Easton, 39, pleaded guilty in court this month to communicating online with someone he believed to be a child, downloading indecent images of children, and distributing indecent images of children. The sexual abuse materials, which included images and videos, featured newborn babies, toddlers, and prepubescent children. Easton was first caught by one of Scotland’s National Online Child Abuse Prevention (NOCAP) units in a September 2023 sting that identified his IP number. Police then obtained a search warrant and raided Easton’s home.
In a Telegram chat labeled “Extra Excitement,” Easton hoarded 132 images and 1,119 videos with newborn infants and children up to age 10. Police found that Easton also had a chat log with a user claiming to be 13 years old; Easton referred to this user as “baby boy,” and sent him photos of his genitals. He also requested the user call him “daddy.”
Appearing at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on August 13, Easton did not deny that he had downloaded and shared child pornography. But despite his admission, he has avoided prison and was instead sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid community service and three years of supervision.
Easton was sentenced by Sheriff Morag McLaughlin, who said in court that Easton’s crimes “don’t quite reach the threshold for a prison sentence.”
While news of Easton’s conviction first broke on August 13, interest in his case has been renewed after it was revealed by journalist Marion Scott that Easton had previously worked with LGBT Youth Scotland. The charity was exposed by Reduxx in 2022 for participating in the alleged grooming and sexual exploitation of two minor boys who had been accessing their services.
According to Scott, Easton co-authored the charity’s “coming out guide” for “trans young people” which was distributed to public schools across the country and is still available on the East Ayrshire Council website. The guide, which heavily promotes LGBT Youth Scotland services, “looks at the various stages of the coming out process” in a youth-accessible tone, presenting different scenarios and considerations for minors interested in changing their gender identity.
A photo of Easton and the guide’s other co-authors is featured at the end of the document.
While Easton has scrubbed the majority of his social media profiles, on his now-deleted Facebook, he also admitted to fundraising for the government-funded organization, claiming that their “mission means a lot to [him].” He has also been found to have operated a small X account where he referred to himself as “Annabelle Ende” and dressed in drag.
On his prolific GoodReads account, Easton expresses a particular interest in gay erotic fiction – with many of his favorited titles focusing on sexual relationships between teen boys or teen boys and adult men. In one, a 14-year-old boy develops an incestuous relationship with his uncle.
Disturbingly, Easton is not the first pedophile who has been confirmed to have a connection to LGBT Youth Scotland. In 2009, the charity’s then-CEO, James Rennie, was found guilty of operating the country’s largest pedophile network and sexually abusing his friends’ infant that he would babysit from three months of age. The charity was never investigated by police.
Scottish government and police were criticized for failing to investigate LGBT Youth Scotland following former CEO Rennie’s trial. The organization, meanwhile, issued a press statement following the 2022 Reduxx exposè, claiming no wrongdoing.
“For clarity, and contrary to commentary online, there is not, and has not been, a police investigation in relation to recent allegations in the media into LGBT Youth Scotland or any members of our staff or volunteer team. For good practice, and in line with our internal policies, we also conducted an internal investigation into the allegations and all safeguarding processes conducted at the time of the allegations. We found no evidence of a lack of safeguarding,” the statement read.
Sam Cowie, a young man who previously told Reduxx he was groomed and exploited while accessing LGBT Youth Scotland, has expressed outrage at the latest news on Easton. Taking to X, Cowie said the charity must finally be defunded by the government.
“The Scottish Government continues to fund an organisation that had a paedophile CEO, that had staff members groom me and now @ladymcbeth2 has exposed that ANOTHER paedophile worked with them after the James Rennie scandal. LGBTYS must go #defundLGBTYS,” he posted.
According to the Scottish police, there were 5,066 registered sex offenders (RSO) living in communities across the country in January 2024. Names of registered offenders are not published in order to protect their anonymity.
According to the police website: “RSOs are robustly managed by the police and our partners through the Multi-agency public protection arrangements, and subject to comprehensive risk assessment and risk management in the community. Police Scotland has units of dedicated officers specially trained for this task.”
LGBT Youth Scotland has not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
