The first in-person jury to sit at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court in more than two years has convicted a Glenrothes man of child abuse dating back more than three decades.
Thomas Hepburn, 62, was found guilty of two charges of lewd, indecent and libidinous behaviour by the majority of jurors on Monday afternoon.
Hepburn was convicted of targeting one girl, then aged between 12 and 16, on various occasions at houses in Glenrothes between February 1989 and February 1993.
The allegations only came to light in 2019 after Hepburn’s victim underwent hypnotherapy and counselling.
After drinking, he would sneak into a room where the girl was in bed wearing a nightie or a T-shirt and pants, before touching her.
On one occasion after abusing her, she tried to leave to go to the bathroom but Hepburn followed her.
Addressing the jury before they retired, fiscal depute Claire Bremner said: “She said she tried to use the bathroom and was followed in by Thomas Hepburn.
“He sat on the bath while she used the toilet.”
Second victim
Jurors agreed Hepburn touched and rubbed his young victim on the body, over and under her clothing and observed her carrying out a private act.
They also found Hepburn touched her private parts over and under her clothes, attempted to remove her bed covers, place his hands in her underwear and forced her to touch his private parts.
He was found guilty of a second charge alleging he targeted another girl of a similar age, at an address in Glenrothes on one occasion between March of 1988 and 1990.
There, he entered the girl’s bed, lay beside her and touched her on the body over her underwear.
Ms Bremner added: “There is compelling evidence that all of these incidents are linked in time, character and circumstances.”
Neither complainer can be named for legal reasons.
A third charge, alleging more lewd, indecent and libidinous behaviour towards a third girl in the early 90s was found not proven.
Now of Shiel Gardens in Falkirk, first offender Hepburn had denied all charges, lodging a defence seeking to incriminate his older brother.
The court had heard four days of evidence, mainly in private and jurors spent Monday morning and early afternoon deliberating.
Juries return to court
Hepburn’s trial, before Sheriff Alastair Brown, was the first with an in-person jury since before the first Covid-19 lockdown and the first ever to sit in Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court’s annexe building.
Fife juries had been operating remotely from Dunfermline’s Odeon.
Sheriff Brown described the offences as “plainly serious” and ordered reports.
Hepburn, who attended court on crutches, was placed on the Sex Offenders Register and will be sentenced on October 24.
