A man is to stand trial over child sex abuse charges dating back more than 60 years.
Robert Wishart faces four charges of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards girls as young as five between 1954 and 1961.
Wishart is said to himself have been just 14 when the alleged abuse started, Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard.
Prosecutors say he first targeted a girl, aged between nine and 14 at the time, and on various occasions seized her by the body, placed his hands inside her underwear and touched her private parts.
Wishart, now 76, is also said to have attacked a second girl on one occasions between May 1954 and May 1958, when she was aged between five and eight.
He is alleged to have pinned her down on a chair, lay on top of her and prevent her from moving and attempted to take hold of his penis.
A fourth charge alleges that between January 1959 and January 1961 he abused a third girl, aged eight or nine at the time.
In that incident he is said to have, on one occasion in that period, put his arms around her while she was in bed, touched her private parts over her underwear and repeatedly attempt to spread her legs.
Wishart, 76, of Langwith Junction, Mansefield, Nottinghamshire, pleaded not guilty on indictment to four charges of using lewd, indecent and libidnious practices and behaviour.
Prosecutors gave notice in court papers that they also intend to lead evidence of a fifth incident, alleged to have been committed by Wishart against a girl aged three or four in Germany in the late sixties.
However, they will not be seeking a conviction on that alleged incident.
Fiscal depute Beverly Adam said the Crown are still investigating how the evidence of the first alleged victim will be put before a jury due to her ill health.
Sheriff Grant McCulloch adjourned the case to a further pre-trial hearing next week.
A court source said: “These are amongst the most historic charges in terms of their age to have ever come before a sheriff court in Scotland.
“They date back more than 60 years – but it shows the Crown will take action whenever there is evidence of this type of offence being committed.”
