A sleazy Fife sex offender has been jailed for a year.
Gordon Haig, 55, was convicted of sexually assaulting two schoolgirls by getting into bed with them and giving them naked hugs.
The 55-year-old abused the youngsters during a course of conduct spanning six years, a jury heard.
He appeared for sentence at Livingston High Court after earlier being found guilty of three charges involving the girls, who are still teenagers.
In addition to the 12-month prison sentence he was told his name would remain on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.
Haig, said now to be living in Freuchie, Fife, was convicted of sexually assaulting the girls on a number of occasions when each of them was under 13 years of age.
He physically assaulted one girl on various occasions by slapping and punching her on the head and body.
The violent attacks included seizing and compressing the girl’s jaw, pulling her hair, pushing her head out of a car window and dragging her out of a car, all to her injury.
Carer claim
The offences took place while Haig was staying at various addresses in Fife between March 2012 and February 2018, the jury was told.
Solicitor advocate Kris Gilmartin, defending, said his client had a previous conviction dating from 1988 for public indecency, for which he was admonished.
He claimed Haig currently had a series of medical problems including conversion disorder, multiple medications as a result of a heart operation and a hernia.
He added the accused was also carer for his elderly mother.
He said Haig had arranged to buy a home in which he and his mother could live so he could care for her full time but admitted she still currently stayed with his sister who also cared for her.
Imprisoned
Jailing Haig, Lord Braid told him: “Although it’s said you didn’t touch the girls on intimate areas, nevertheless any sexual assault of a child is serious, more so in that you were in a position of trust.
“The offences are also aggravated by the period of time over which they were committed and the fact that two girls were involved at different times.”
In the light of the gravity of the offending and the public interest, the judge said the custody threshold had clearly been met.
Taking into account such aggravating factors, he said there was no suitable alternative to a prison sentence of 12 months.
