Kevin Booth: Global travel prohibition for the abuser who "torture" women in the underground room

A man who used an underground room at his Highland house to abuse vulnerable women received the first prohibition of traveling worldwide in Scottish legal history.

Kevin Booth – once described as a millionaire racing – recruited women from the UK and abroad to come to Lochdhu Lodge from Altnabreac and administered them – the named “punishment”.

Wick Sheriff Court has heard that the lodge was in a “distant location” inaccessible to public transport.

Within a building from the lodge, a trap led to an underground room, with a 60 -meter -long curved concrete tunnel containing an empty coffin, Egyptian figures and a metal bank.

In a written decision published on Tuesday, Sheriff Neil Wilson wrote about how Booth abused women and filmed the attacks.

Describing one of the 13 videos played on the field, Sheriff Wilson mentioned: “This video shows the contraction of red and black metal in the tomb area of Lochdhu.

“A black young woman is handcuffed to her in an kneeling position. The defender tells her that she is punished for the way she spoke.

“He tells her she has to learn her lesson. She seems to be terrified. She screams and cries.

“Repeatedly tries to move away, but is handcuffed on the bench. The defender changes and continues to beat.

“It’s hysterical. She cries out to be painful. The defender tells her to” pray for the power to take her correctly. “

“This continues throughout the video: 18 minutes. This seems to be nothing but torture.

“She is chained by the contraction while the defender beats her. It apparently is terrified and tries to escape, but she can’t.”

Booth’s actions at the Lodge were determined on Sir Iain Livingstone, then the Constanta chief of the Police Scotlandto pick up a civil action against him at Wick Sheriff Court.

Police lawyers asked Wilson sheriff to pass a traffic and exploitation order for five years in accordance with section 26 of the Law on human trafficking and operating (Scotland) in 2015.

They told the court that, between 1998 and December 2022, Booth was engaged in a “consistent course of conduct of women’s recruitment, both from the United Kingdom and abroad” for the purpose of “areolating them, either at Lochdhu Lodge. … away from their houses and subsequently submit to violent beats and forced them, through threats of violence, to carry out sexual acts on him ”.

Lawyers said the police could not monitor Booth when he traveled outside the United Kingdom, arguing the best way to minimize the risk he presented to females was to forbid him to travel abroad.

Sheriff Wilson agreed and adopted such an order – the first to be granted in Scottish legal history.

Booth has to teach all passports and also announce the police 14 days before hiring any employed woman.

The police must be notified before a visiting woman, and the officers can carry out unannounced well -being checks.

Sheriff Wilson said that Booth “has a pleasure to shake his victims” and justified them as “punishment beats”.

He added: “In view of the evidence presented by the pursuer, I had no difficulty in the conclusion that the defender has been, constantly, over several years to abuse and do such acts committed by human beings and exploitation.

“I would go so far as to describe the evidence as overwhelming and that all the evidence presented by the follower, in the form of videos, Skype messages, documents and statements of witnesses does not allow any other conclusion.

“The proof of improper behavior of Mr. Booth, as presented in the court, have sometimes been rooted.

“Graphic video footage, combined with the context and background provided by supporting documentary evidence in different forms, has been regaining a level of cruelty and depravity, which, while extreme, can only hope it is rare.”