Kevin Booth: Global travel ban for abuser who 'tortured' women in underground chamber

A man who used an underground chamber at his Highland home to abuse vulnerable women has been given the first worldwide travel ban in Scottish legal history.

Kevin Booth - once described as a millionaire racing tipster - recruited women from the UK and abroad to come to Lochdhu Lodge in Altnabreac and administered so-called "punishment beatings" to them.

Wick Sheriff Court heard that the lodge was in a "remote location" inaccessible by public transport.

Within a building at the lodge, a trapdoor led to an underground chamber with a 60-metre-long curved concrete tunnel containing an empty coffin, life-sized Egyptian figures and a metal bench.

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

Describing one of the 13 videos played to the court, Sheriff Wilson noted: "This video shows the red and black metal contraption in the tomb area of Lochdhu.

"A young black woman is handcuffed to it in a kneeling position. The defender tells her she is being punished for the way she spoke to him.

"He tells her she has to learn her lesson. She appears to be terrified. She is screaming and crying.

"She repeatedly tries to get away but is handcuffed to the bench. The defender swaps implements and continues to beat her.

"She is hysterical. She cries out that it is painful. The defender tells her to 'pray for the strength to take it properly'.

"This continues for the duration of the video: 18 minutes. This appears to be nothing other than torture.

"She is chained to the contraption while the defender beats her. She is apparently terrified and tries to escape but cannot."

Booth's actions at the lodge prompted Sir Iain Livingstone, then the chief constable of Police Scotland, to raise a civil action against him at Wick Sheriff Court.

Lawyers for the police asked Sheriff Wilson to pass a trafficking and exploitation order for five years under terms of section 26 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015.

They told the court that between 1998 and December 2022, Booth engaged in a "consistent course of conduct of recruiting women, both from the United Kingdom and abroad" for the purposes of "isolating them, either at Lochdhu Lodge... far from their homes, and thereafter submitting them to violent beatings and forcing them, through threats of violence, to perform sexual acts on him".

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The lawyers said police could not monitor Booth when he travelled outside the UK, arguing the best way to minimise the risk he posed to females was to ban him from travelling outside of the country.

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

Booth must surrender all passports and also notify police 14 days before hiring any female employee.

Police must be notified in advance of any female visitors and officers may conduct unannounced welfare checks at his properties.

Sheriff Wilson said Booth "takes pleasure in assaulting his victims" and justified them as "punishment beatings".

He added: "Given the evidence presented by the pursuer, I had no difficulty coming to the conclusion that the defender has, consistently over many years, been engaged in a course of conduct involving the targeting of financially vulnerable women whom he subsequently coerces into submitting to abuse, and in doing so committed acts of human trafficking and exploitation.

"I would go so far as to describe the evidence as overwhelming, and that the totality of the evidence presented by the pursuer, in the form of videos, Skype messages, documents and witness statements allows no other conclusion.

"The evidence of Mr Booth's egregious conduct, as presented in court, was at times, utterly harrowing.

"The graphic video footage, combined with the context and background provided by supporting documentary evidence in various forms, was redolent of a level of cruelty and depravity which, whilst extreme, one can only hope is rare."

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