Aberdeen man convicted of sexual assault on girls - three decades after crimes

A child rapist who preyed on young girls has been brought to justice 30 years after his offending ended.

John Barbour began abusing his first victim as a schoolboy and went on to target a second child when he was still a teenager.

First offender Barbour, 52, had denied five charges of indecency and rape during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

But after he was found guilty of two offences of indecency and one rape charge a judge rejected a defence motion to continue his bail and remanded him in custody.

Lord Ericht deferred sentence on Barbour, of Bridge of Don, in Aberdeen, until next month for the preparation of a background report and told jurors they had served on a "serious and difficult" case.

Barbour was found guilty of pinning a four year old girl against a wall and molesting her and getting her to perform a sex act on him between December 1978 and December the following year in Aberdeen.

He was also convicted of molesting a second girl from the age of four between August 1984 and December 1986 and raping her in the Granite City.

He was acquitted of two further charge alleging indecency and rape against the second girl between 1987 and 1988 on not proven verdicts.

The first victim told the court that as a little girl her parents would regularly send her on an errand at the same time on a Sunday morning to get newspapers from a shop.

But she said that on more than one occasion Barbour subjected her to indecent conduct after grabbing her.

She that on the first time it happened he had been waiting for her and took her by the arm to the back of a landing at a block of flats.

She said: "I realised something was not right so I started screaming. He put his hand over my mouth. When I realised he was taking me to the back of the landing alarm bells started ringing."

She said the area was dirty and stank of urine and he continued to keep his hand over her mouth. She said he lifted her top and touched her chest and then molested her.

The victim, now a 43-year-old care home employee, said she screamed because it was painful, but added: "The more I screamed the more he covered my mouth."

She said Barbour exposed himself and got her to touch him and perform a sex act on him. She told the court: "I remember struggling to get away. I just remember getting free from him and going to the shop."

She said she collected the newspapers and returned home. She said: "I didn't tell anyone. The reason I didn't tell anybody was because I thought I had done something wrong. I just remember being very scared."

The woman told advocate depute Keith Stewart QC that such incidents happened "several times".

She said: "When I was coming out my landing it was like he had been waiting for me because it was always 10 o'clock I would be going to the shop."

She said that on one occasion she had been screaming and her mother and another woman had come running downstairs and caught him taking her to the spot on the landing, but she could not remember anything happening after that.

The woman said that as an adult she had gone for counselling. She said she did not remember how old Barbour was at the time, but added: "I really just remember him being a tall boy compared to me."

Barbour was placed on the sex offenders' register.