A child abuser is behind bars after one of his victims came forward after his trial had started.
Stewart King went on trial last year facing four charges including three of repeatedly assaulting young children and one detailing horrific sex abuse of a young girl.
But the trial had to be scrapped after another victim of King’s campaign of sexual abuse came forward to say she had also been one of his victims after reading newspaper coverage of his trial.
That prompted prosecutors to approach her and resulted in a further charge being added to the indictment against King.
Now he has been convicted of an 18-month campaign of sex abuse of that girl, as well as four other child abuse charges.
The woman claimed she had alerted the authorities about King’s behaviour 10 years earlier but no action had been taken.
She said if action had been taken then it could have spared his later victims from years of abuse.
A trial at Dundee Sheriff Court heard how King’s first victim who came forward via the internet had been sexually assaulted on various occasions between June 1 2005 and December 31 2006, when she was aged 18 and 19.
The court heard over the course of almost four years between July 2010 and March 2014 King repeatedly launched violent attacks on three young children.
One was aged between 12 and 16 when the attacks occurred.
The second victim who was aged 11 to 15 throughout the attacks was physically and sexually assaulted.
The third victim aged just seven when the abuse started was grabbed, pushed against a wall, punched on the head and body and kicked on the legs over the course of three-and-a-half years of abuse.
King, 56, of Forres Avenue, Dundee, denied three charges of assault to injury, one under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act and one of indecent assault.
Sheriff Lorna Drummond QC deferred sentence for social work background reports and remanded King in custody meantime.