Inverness street trader faces child sex charges

INVERNESS street trader Kim Gordon whose mysterious disappearance is being investigated by US authorities is due to go on trial on Monday at the High Court in Edinburgh on 24 charges including several rapes plus sexual assaults on a child.

The 52-year-old was reported missing last week after apparently going for a swim at Monastery Beach, Carmel, in California.

But after police divers failed to find any sign of him the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office began exploring the possibility Mr Gordon, also known as Kim Vincent Avis or Kem Vincent Avis, could still be alive.

He is accused of five rapes, two sexual assaults on a young child and indecent behaviour towards a girl aged between 12 and 16.

Other charges include attempted rape, coercing a person into being present during sexual activity and communicating indecently, plus lewd and libidinous behaviour.

He is also accused of four assaults, two charges of threatening and abusive behaviour, two charges of breach of the peace and malicious damage.

He appeared on petition at Inverness Sheriff Court in December 2017 and at a preliminary hearing at the High Court in Glasgow last November.

At the time of his disappearance, he was with his 17-year-old son, Reuben, who was taken into protective custody after alerting Monterey County Police. He is now believed to be at home in the Inverness area.

The location where Mr Gordon went missing is on a notoriously-dangerous stretch of coastline

Commander Kathy Palazzolo, of Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, said: "As of now, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office is treating the case as a missing person.

"We have no eyewitness information that Mr Gordon was in the water and our ocean search was suspended. The case is still under investigation."

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