North East sex offender jailed over four decade campaign of abuse

A high risk sex offender who preyed on women and children and subjected victims to rape and abuse over more than four decades has been given a life sentence.

Douglas Ewen was warned he will only ever be freed if the authorities consider it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that he be kept in jail.

Ewen, 59, inflicted a catalogue of sexual and physical harm on victims beginning when he was only 15 years of age.

A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh told him: "There is clearly no alternative to a custodial sentence. No other method of dealing with you is appropriate."

Lord Kinclaven said he had reached the view that the risk criteria were met for imposing an Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR) on Ewen.

Under an OLR the court sets a minimum period the offender must spend in prison but any future release is left to the parole authorities.

Lord Kinclaven told Ewen that he would fix the punishment part that he must serve at five and a half years.

But the judge told him: "Please be clear that that does not mean that at the end of that period of five years and six months that you will be released."

The judge said he had read a victim impact statement from one woman who was abused and raped by Ewen as a child which set out the emotional and psychological impact of his offending on her.

Lord Kinclaven said that an expert who prepared a report on Ewen had reached the conclusion that he presented a high risk.

Ewen, a prisoner in Grampian jail, was found guilty of a total of 18 offences, involving 10 victims, last year following a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen.

His catalogue of crime included child rape, rape of women, sexual and physical assault and threatening behaviour.

Most of his offending occurred at addresses in Aberdeen but other incidents took place at different locations in North-east Scotland.

His crimes began in 1974 when he was a teenager as he physically assaulted a female in the Balnagask area of the city and repeatedly punched her.

In 1976 he started committing sex crimes after targeting a little girl whom he molested from the age of five before later raping her.

Ewen then began abusing a second five year old girl in 1980 and later indecently assaulted her during an attack at a house in Aberdeen.

He then went on to attack and indecently assault a third underage girl in the city during the 1980s.

He committed further assaults and rapes against a woman between 1989 and 2009 who he threatened who he punched, pushed, grabbed and seized by the neck. He also locked the woman in a caravan in Banchory and twisted her leg.

Ewen raped a woman in December 2011 in an attack that began while the victim was asleep but continued after she wakened. He later subjected another woman to a similar sex attack.

He also targeted another between January 2014 and December 2015 and would loiter outside her home and watch the windows and follow the victim.

In April 2016 he went into a woman's home in Aberdeen and repeatedly made sexual remarks to her.

He also followed another woman and molested her and took indecent photographs of her and breached a bail condition not to approach and contact her in 2017.

Defence counsel David Moggach said Ewen still maintained that he was innocent of the charges a jury convicted him on.

He said Ewen did not keep the best of health, but added: "There is, it has to be accepted, a common theme throughout all the reports that he is a risk, a high risk."

Police have today welcomed the sentence handed down.

Detective Chief Inspector Lorna Ferguson, who led the investigation, said: “Ewen committed a catalogue of abuse against young children and adults over more than 40 years in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

“He has devastated the lives of his victims who have shown great courage in coming forward and giving evidence at trial.

“This horrific abuse can now come to an end and it is my hope that the fact that Ewen will now have to face the consequences of his actions will bring some form of closure for his victims and their families.

“My thoughts, and those of my enquiry team, are with them and those who have supported them today.

“I would also like to thank the team of dedicated and professional staff who worked extremely hard to bring Ewen to justice. This was a particularly distressing case to work on.

“Our hope is that the sentence handed down today sends out the clear message that abuse will not be tolerated. We would always encourage anyone who has been affected by sexual abuse no matter how long ago it was to come forward and tell us about it. Reports will always be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated.”

Ewen was previously placed on the sex offenders' register.