Victims of a serial Dundee paedophile have spoken out after he dodged a prison sentence despite abusing them as children.
Former bakery worker Ian Lowe, 67, was ordered to perform unpaid work after being found guilty of sexual offences against two children between 1983 and 1991.
One of his victims, 48-year-old Pamela Devlin, believed Lowe should have been handed a jail term for molesting her when she was 12.
A sheriff slammed the pensioner’s “reprehensible” conduct but believed an unpaid work order would be more of a punishment than the maximum three month prison sentence which was available.
Pamela, who has waived her right to anonymity, said: “It’s just not fair on the victims.
“The judge sat there and listened to us, he knows what we were put through. He (Lowe) has already been jailed before. He’s a horrific sex offender.”
Another victim, who didn’t wish to be named, added: “We just don’t feel we have had any kind of justice here.
“We have suffered coming to court far worse than him. We were the ones who had the courage but it feels like it’s not been worth it at all.”
Lowe, of Langshaw Road, was found guilty of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices towards Pamela between February 1 1983 and November 30 1984 by pulling her arm into a bedroom, removing her clothing and repeatedly touching and striking her buttocks.
The creep carried out a similar attack on another child between August 13 1990 and August 12 1991 by pulling her arm behind the counter of the bakery he worked at, kissing her on the mouth and repeatedly touching her inappropriately.
Pamela said Lowe groomed her while she worked as a paper girl, the trauma of his depraved conduct leading her to go “off the rails”.
Lowe would go on to commit a string of similar offences against children during the 80s and 90s which he was found guilty of in 2017.
Lowe was found guilty on summary complaint, meaning Sheriff Derek Reekie was only able to impose a maximum prison sentence of three months.
Defence solicitor Mike Short said Lowe continues to deny committing the attacks.
He told the court it was his belief Lowe would benefit more from a longer community-based order than a jail term.
Mr Short said: “I believe he has the ability to do unpaid work and it’s something he is willing to do. Given his health he would probably be working for much longer than a custodial sentence. That would give him a longer period of time to think about this.”
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Sheriff Reekie sentenced him to 240 hours of unpaid work and placed him on a restriction of liberty order keeping him indoors between 7pm-7am for three months.
He said: “I had the misfortune to hear this trial and hear the effect your reprehensible and humiliating conduct had towards these ladies.
“Custody has to be given extremely serious consideration but I am constrained that the Crown prosecuted this on summary complaint.
“You have served 12 months for analogous type of offending at the same time so the fact of the matter is this was a course of conduct that was more extensive and significant than previously known. There is nothing I can do to undo the harm undoubtedly caused to these ladies.”
Pamela added: “All I want to do is to get more people to come forward if they’ve suffered. The only positive for victims is we’ve made friends out of this.
“We’ve been the victims but we’re stronger together.”
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