Aberdeen man jailed over historic sexual offences

A child abuser who preyed on young girls three decades ago was jailed for four years today.

John Barbour attacked 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 earlier denied five charges of indecency and rape during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Father-of-four Barbour, of Bridge of Don, in Aberdeen, was found guilty of two offences of indecency and one rape charge

He was convicted of pinning a four year old girl against a wall and molesting her between December 1978 and December the following year in Aberdeen.

He was also convicted of attacking a second girl from the age of four between August 1984 and December 1986.

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

A judge told Barbour at the High Court in Edinburgh that it was clear from victim impact statements that his behaviour had "a severe and detrimental effect" on the lives of victims.

Lord Ericht said he had been convicted of a number of serious offences but he took into account that the first occurred when he was a child aged 13 to 14.

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."

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 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."

Defence counsel Mark Stewart QC said Barbour continued to maintain that he was innocent of any wrongdoing and added he did not pose a risk to the public.

Barbour was placed on the sex offenders' register.

Speaking after the sentencing at the High Court in Edinburgh, Procurator Fiscal for Sexual Offences, Kenny Donnelly said:

"The jury has convicted John Barbour of serious sexual offences against two vulnerable young girls.

“For nearly thirty years he may well have thought that he had escaped justice but he was wrong and thanks to the courage of his victims in coming forward to report what happened to them he is now paying the consequences for his actions.

“Whilst we recognise that reporting cases of sexual abuse can be an extremely daunting prospect, we would encourage all victims of such crimes, wherever and whenever they were committed, to come forward and report them.

“Victims of abuse can be confident that if they report their experiences to the Police they will be treated with the utmost professionalism and sensitivity by them and our expert prosecutors."