A man who used an underground chamber at his remote Highland lodge to film himself abusing vulnerable women has been made subject to the first worldwide travel ban in Scottish legal history.

Kevin Booth lured victims from the UK and abroad to Lochdhu Lodge in Altnabreac, Caithness, ‘for the purposes of isolating them’ and subjected them to prolonged ‘punishment beatings’ and forced them into sex acts.

Inside the lodge, a trapdoor gives way to a 60m-long concrete tunnel leading to an underground ‘chamber’ containing life-size ancient Egyptian figures and a metal bench, Wick Sheriff Court was told.

The women would be restrained to the metal bench and whipped with implements including canes, wooden brushes, riding crops and belts ‘causing them obvious extreme distress and pain’.

In his ruling, Sheriff Neil Wilson said: ‘These assaults are videoed by the defender. A consistent feature of these assaults is that the defender takes pleasure in assaulting his victims.’

He added that Booth ‘takes great care in inspecting and filming the injuries inflicted, and that in counting the set number of blows to be administered threatens to start again if the victim struggles or resists in any way’.

Several filmed beatings were presented to the court.

Describing one, the Sheriff said: ‘This video shows the red and black metal contraption in the tomb area of Lochdhu. A young black woman is hand cuffed 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 continues to strike her.

‘The defender tells her to “pray for the strength to take it properly”. This continues for the duration of the video: 18 minutes.

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‘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.’

The court heard Booth ‘has a history of offending’, and between 1998 to December 2022 ‘has 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 or elsewhere far from their homes, and thereafter submitting them to violent beatings and forcing them, through threats of violence, to perform sexual acts on him’.

Booth would travel overseas ‘to target financially vulnerable women and induce them, through the promise of employment and financial gain, to travel to join him in a variety of locations distant from their home countries’ where ‘he is better able exploit them, and subject them to beatings and sexual assaults’.

In a rare move, Police Scotland launched a civil action seeking a travel ban because they were unable to monitor Booth’s trafficking and exploitation of women when he was abroad.

Sheriff Wilson passed the travel ban order – the first in Scotting legal history – meaning Booth must surrender his passport and also notify police 14 days before hiring any female employee.

He must also notify police in advance of any females visiting his property and officers will now have the power to carry out unannounced welfare checks at them.

Sheriff Wilson said: ‘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.

‘It might be thought that the use of such value-laden language in a legal judgment is inappropriate. I would beg to differ, and make no apologies for including it.

‘This judgment may be primarily concerned with the legal issues before the court, but it is important not to lose sight of the human suffering giving rise to this case.’

Detective Sergeant Chris Hughes said: ‘The safety of women and girls is an absolute priority for us and we sought the Trafficking and Exploitation Risk Order as an option open to us to prevent any further offending.

‘Trafficking and exploitation is a blight on our communities and has no place in society and we will use all resources open to us to tackle it.’

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