Paedo ex-councillor caught breaching court order after phone number found by murder probe cops
A former PAEDO councilor has been caught violating a court ban – after his number surfaced in a double homicide investigation.
John Friary’s contact details were discovered while police were investigating 40-year-old Steven Robertson in the murder of his ex Emma Robertson Coupland and their daughter Nicole Anderson.
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But after officers asked to speak to the 63-year-old former Labor politician, he flouted a strict order by deleting internet history on his laptop and mobile phone.
A sheriff overheard Friary, who was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2011 for grooming a 15-year-old girl online, alleging that he had with him a sex worker who used his device to place an ad on the classifieds site Craigslist.
He claimed the suspect reacted.
Speaking in court in Edinburgh, prosecutor Drew Long said of the perpetrator’s order to prevent sex crimes: “It means he shouldn’t delete any pictures or browsing history.
“His phone number turned up as part of a double homicide investigation.”
The court found that there was deleted content on an iPhone that could not be recovered and that the browsing history on the laptop was erased.
Sheriff Matthew Auchincloss has fined the Newhaven region pervert £600 after he previously admitted to “deleting” the web history.
Friary, who had campaigned for high-profile Labor figures such as Harriet Harman and Tessa Jowell, resigned as a London councilor after his arrest.
Emma, 39, was stabbed in the heart by Robertson outside Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock in February 2021.
Then, 20 minutes later, he assaulted his stepdaughter Nicole, 24, outside a diner in town.
Robertson, who shared three children with his ex-wife Emma, died after crashing his motor into a tree 12 miles away.
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