A Fife man rubbed a boy’s face in urine-soaked bedsheets and tightened a plastic bag over his head during a course of abuse against six children.
George Grant’s crimes involved either physical violence, indecent behaviour or neglect towards his victims across 13 years in Fife.
He assaulted one girl from when she was four years old and would often strike her – once hitting her head against a sink, which she believes caused her to suffer tinnitus.
On one occasion Grant used lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards the girl by inducing her to play strip poker and asking her to remove her clothing.
He also showed her pornographic videos and made sexual remarks.
The court heard Grant showed pornographic videos to two other girls, tickled them and touched one on the breasts over her clothing.
They were only aged between 12 and 16 at the time.
He also wilfully ill-treated, neglected and abandoned four children in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to health.
This included inducing one child to eat food off the floor and another to drink alcohol.
Told boy ‘he was a dog’
Grant, 63, of Oakfield Street, Kelty, was convicted by jury of nine charges following a trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.
One of his victims recalled seeing Grant put a plastic bag over a boy’s head and “tightened it so he could not breathe” when he was about six years old.
The woman, now in her 30s, told the trial: “You could see (the boy’s) mouth was open and the bag was going in the way.
“I felt horrible (seeing that)”.
She also witnessed Grant rubbing the boy’s face in urine-soaked sheets and telling him “he was a dog”.
Other assaults by Grant included striking the boy’s head against a wooden staircase and with the back of a chair.
She also witnessed Grant spraying a bottle of deodorant in the youngster’s mouth.
Made 12-year-old play strip poker
The woman said when she was four or five Grant held her over a sink and shook her, intentionally causing her head to strike it.
She recounted other instances during which Grant smacked her and struck her on the head and said he would “dig his fingers into ribs” leaving her sore for days.
Although no evidence was led in court regarding the cause, she blamed the “constant” tinnitus she has suffered since she was six on Grant.
She said when he was drunk his demeanour changed for the worse, adding: “He was like Jekyll and Hyde”.
The woman recalled him getting her to play strip poker and said she had been given alcohol.
Court papers say she was under 12 at the time.
She said: “He won and got me to take a sock off.
“(I said) how do you know you are always going to win and he said, ‘I know how to cheat.’
At that point I just left because I was quite disturbed”.
She said he showed her pornographic videos when she was aged about 13 or 14.
Asked by procurator fiscal depute Jamie Hilland and about the effect of Grant’s behaviour, the woman said: “It’s mostly emotional abuse.
“His behaviour from the start to finish was absolutely horrible. He was a monster”.
Guilty of nine charges
Grant denied the offending – between January 1992 and May 2005 – and told the court he was drinking heavily at the time.
A jury found him guilty by majority of two counts of assault on various occasions against a boy and a girl.
In the girl’s case, she was found to be permanently impaired as a result.
The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on seven other charges.
This included physical assaults on various occasions against another boy and girl which, according to court papers, started when they were both under the age of two.
It also included four charges of Grant using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices towards three girls.
Sheriff Charles Macnair deferred sentencing until March 8 for background reports and remanded Grant in custody.
Grant was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
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