Child sexual predator jailed 42 years after abusing first victim
Alistair White, 56, will be sentenced next month
A sex predator who targeted little girls for abuse more than three decades ago was jailed today.
Alistair White, 56, began his campaign of sex crime against younger children when he was aged only 13.
He took his first victim, who was aged six, to a house in Broxburn, in West Lothian, and subjected her to an ordeal of sex acts and stuck duct tape over her mouth in 1977.
His last victim, a four year old girl, was taken to a secluded spot in the West Lothian town where he simulated sex with her.
Two other girls also fell victim to White who would offer intended targets money, sweets, peanuts or drinks for "a feel" in the town.
One adult woman helped bring White to justice after experiencing a series of flashbacks to the abuse she suffered at his hands after attending for counselling.
She told the High Court in Edinburgh they would feature "a really intrusive thought and an image of what has happened to you in the past".
The woman said: "I could be watching the television or walking around and I get the image of the silver tape being over my mouth."
She recalled that she had to perform oral sex on White and that he carried out a sex act on her.
She also told the court that White raped her in an assault that left her screaming as a child.
The woman said she never had doubts that what she was remembering actually happened.
She said: "I felt in my heart of hearts I would not be the only one."
White, of Holygate Place, Broxburn, denied raping her and was acquitted of that but was convicted of a penetrative sex attack on her.
During the assault in 1977 he showed her pornographic images, molested her and carried out sex acts on the child.
Another victim was molested by White on occasions between July 1978 and July the following year.
White offered her sweets and money to "touch her up" and at times did sexually touch her when she was a girl aged nine.
Another girl was also offered money by him from the age of seven. She said: "I didn't understand, but I knew something wasn't right and I was uneasy."
White's youngest and final victim was subjected to an indecency offence by him when he was a 24-year-old man.
He offered to take her with him on an errand but took her to waste ground and told her to lie down before he lay on top of her and rubbed himself against her.
She said he told her to tell him when it "tingled". The court heard that medical records showed the child had informed her mother that she had been interfered with and described the sexual act he carried out.
Advocate depute Richard Goddard QC told jurors: "You might think Alistair White, aged 24, had engineered a situation where he was alone with a four-year-old girl for the purpose of abusing her."
White, a first offender, was convicted of a charge of sexual assault and four offences of indecency against children.
The machine operator was placed on the sex offenders' register.
The trial judge, Lord Kinclaven, rejected a defence motion to continue his bail ahead of sentencing next month.
He remanded him in custody and ordered the preparation of a background report on White, including a risk assessment
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