Man jailed for blindfolding girl and abusing her at Perth house
Stephen Selfridge will spend five years behind bars for attacking the girl twice when she was seven and eight-years-old
A man's been jailed for blindfolding a little girl and subjecting her to horrific sexual abuse.
Stephen Selfridge subjected two victims to a catalogue of physical and sexual offending which continued against one until she was a mother-to-be.
A judge told Selfridge: "Your conduct towards these girls was shameful and persistent and has affected them adversely."
Lord Uist told the sex offender at the High Court in Edinburgh: "The offences of which you were convicted involved a degree of planning."
The judge said that Selfridge, 43, continued to deny the offences and has expressed no remorse for the crimes.
Lord Uist said that by far the most serious of his offences was a charge involving oral penetration of the victim.
Selfridge twice carried out the act on the girl when she was aged between seven and eight at a house in a Perthshire village. The victim was blindfolded using a scarf.
Selfridge had denied the indecency offence committed between July 2007 and July 2009 along with a string of other charges at an earlier trial.
But a jury convicted him of a total of 13 charges carried out between 2004 and 2016 including indecency offences, assault and sexual assault.
The first offender, formerly of Rannoch Road, in Perth, was placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely after he was sentenced today.
One victim told advocate depute Derick Nelson that she was "terrified".
She said: "He would cover my mouth and my nose with his hands, pinching my nose and his hand over my mouth. I was unable to breathe."
The woman, now aged 23, said that Selfridge had also strangled her and added: "Both his hands were round my neck and I passed out."
"He told me not to tell anybody or he would do something worse. He would make you feel so scared you couldn't tell anyone," she said.
She said that he later molested her when she was pregnant after she told him to leave her alone.
Defence counsel Kevin McCallum said Selfridge continued to maintain his position at trial and added: "He may have to accept the jury's verdict but, it is fair to say, he does not agree with it."