Fife Policeman Jailed For Sexually Abusing Young Girls
A policeman who sexually abused primary school girls in the Fife communities in which was supposed to be keeping the peace, has been jailed for four years and four months.
Iain Reid, who spent over 20 years in Fife Constabulary, rising from local bobby to detective constable, targeted three girls aged six to 12 while living in a police house in Buckhaven, Fife, and later in Leven, where he bought his own home two-and-a-half miles along the coast.
Reid, now a grandfather aged 66, lured the children with sweets, a chance to pat his dog, or in the case of one young girl, offers of lettuce for her rabbit.
Sheriff Craig Caldwell said he broke the trust placed in him as community policeman to carry out "protracted, sustained, and systematic" abuse of the girls, whom he "enticed" into his home.
He said the girls, now all "successful women", were "scarred" by what Reid did.
He told Reid: "I may say it's a testament to their character and fortitude, that they were able to confront you with their evidence of your cynical abuse.
"No-one could but be impressed by the quiet dignity and candour with which each of them spoke of your conduct.
"Nonetheless, despite the fortitude they now display, and the successful women that they now are, they clearly continue to bear the scars of your conduct."
After a five day trial, a jury of ten women and five men at Falkirk Sheriff Court found Reid guilty of three charges of lewd and libidinous conduct - one of the charges aggravated by abduction - over a 17 year period between 1980 and 1997.