An OAP babysitter who molested a young child after singing a Liberty X song – singing “everything about you’s so sexy” – today dodged a jail term.
Francis Downie later told police he felt the child was “giving me the come on” before he touched the victim.
The child was so horrified by the attack that and ran off to a bedroom to hide.
Downie’s victim kept the attack secret for almost 15 years before coming forward when a work colleague’s abuser was convicted.
Downie admitted the attack when quizzed by police – but avoided a jail term over the attack.
Fiscal depute Nicola Gillespie told the court that Downie was a friend of the child’s family and would babysit on occasion at the family home in Anstruther, Fife.
When left alone together he would sing lyrics from the then-hit single Just A Little Bit by Liberty X – which includes the line “everything about you’s so sexy” – making the child feel “uncomfortable”.
Miss Gillespie said: “It was due to this particular song that the child could identify the particular time period that this occurred.
“He would sing it and it made the child feel uncomfortable.
“On the night in question the child was in the living room and he touched the child’s private parts over clothing.
“When he stopped the child ran to the toilet crying.
“The child was scared and went to a bedroom to the top bunk and sat in the corner.
“He asked the child to come back down stairs but the child tried to change the subject.
“In 2016 a colleague disclosed she had been abused and reported it to police and that the perpetrator was subsequently convicted.
“After thinking it through the victim decided to report it.
“On January 25 this year the accused was contacted by police and detained.
“He said he wasn’t aroused by it and that he knew the child was young but that to him it was like the child was ‘giving me the come on’.”
Downie, 73, of West High Street, Buckhaven, pleaded guilty on indictment to a charge of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards the child between January 31 2001 and January 30 2003 at an address in Anstruther.
After his guilty plea it emerged Downie had a previous conviction for lewd practices dating back to 1965.
Solicitor Christopher Sneddon, defending, said: “He was with a group of friends in a van coming home from a public house and exposed himself and urinated in the presence of people under the age of 14.
“The disposal was a small fine – it’s not indicate of a more serious offence.”
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael imposed a two year probation order with the condition he has no unsupervised contact with children under 16 and that he lives only in approved accommodation.
He also placed Downie on the sex offenders register for two years.
The sheriff said: “The nature of this offence puts it in the custodial zone but I can avoid that today.”
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