A drug dealer has been jailed for six years and nine months after he admitted exploiting a schoolboy to sell drugs for him in one of the first convictions of its kind in Scotland.
Matteullah Siddiqi, 20, preyed on the 14-year-old after having initially met him at a games arcade in Glasgow city centre last year.
The teenager was forced to skip school and stay in drug dens, and was only rescued when teachers became concerned and he admitted what he had been doing.
At the High Court in Glasgow the judge told Siddiqi that the boy had described what happened to him as “mentally traumatic and distressing for his family”.
In a statement to the court, the boy said: “I feel betrayed by an adult who I trusted, but who lured me into trouble.”
Lord Scott told Siddiqi: “What you did has damaged his confidence and his ability to trust and feel free.”
Siddiqi will remain on licence for two years after his release.
In 2023 he was assessed as a victim of child trafficking and exploitation in relation to the supply of drugs.
But, despite his personal experience, the judge said Siddiqi had shown “limited victim empathy”.
Lord Scott added: “You focus on yourself as a victim rather than the child you recruited.”
A number of offenders have been convicted under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act, external, but this case is thought to be one of the first involving a child being exploited to deal class A drugs for financial gain.
The case featured in BBC Discloure’s Welcome to Glasgow documentary earlier this month.
