An “evil” policeman who preyed on young girls in the Fife fishing communities where he was based is facing jail.
Iain Reid targeted children as young as three while living in a police house in Buckhaven, and later in Leven, where he bought his own home two-and-a-half miles along the coast.
One of his victims, whom he abused over a period of five years, and who had to report her torment three times before he was prosecuted, was singled out for praise by the trial sheriff for her “fortitude” in exposing the “chronic and persistent sexual predator”.
Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that Reid, now a grandfather aged 66, engineered opportunities to be alone with the children, enticing them into his house with sweets, to pat his dog, or in the case of one young girl, offers of food for a pet.
Once indoors, the former Fife PC touched them inappropriately over their clothing and rubbed himself sexually against them.
One of his three young victims, now 46, recalled how he abused her in one of the bedrooms at the police house.
Another of his victims, now in her 30s, told jurors she could still remember the smell of his smoky breath as he pulled her towards him and whispered in her ear, before performing an act of sexual abuse and then demanding a kiss in return for her freedom.
His third child victim, who was eventually to bring him to justice, said Reid used to invite her into his house which she passed on her way back from school.
Now 30, she described a series of incidents of sexual abuse from the time she was six for five or more years, at his later home in Sillerhole Road, Leven, in the early to mid 90s.
She said Reid would abuse her while he sat her on his lap.
The abuse continued until she was in Primary 7 in 1997 and told her best friend. Together they went to see the school nurse. Police and social work were called in but Reid was not prosecuted at the time because there were no other witnesses.
She said she reported the childhood abuse again when she was 20 but again no action was taken because of lack of corroboration.
In about 2009, she heard by chance of another girl who said Reid had abused her but did nothing until 2014 when out of the blue Reid made a phone call to her mother.
The court was not told the details of the call but the woman said its content was enough to make her go to the police in one final attempt to “get justice for herself and others”.
This time it worked, not least because she was able to give officers details of the other victim she had met in 2009.
After a five-day trial, the jury found Reid guilty of three charges of lewd and libidinous conduct.
The offences were committed between 1980 and 1997.
Allegations that Reid abused a fourth girl in 1999, and sexually assaulted a mother in 1982, and abused a child in her early teens, were found not proven.
Deferring sentence until October 27 for reports and remanding Reid in custody, Sheriff Craig Caldwell told him to expect a lengthy jail term and ordered his name be placed on the sex offenders register.
He said: “You have been found guilty of extremely serious charges, involving the persistent sexual abuse of very young children.”