A man who subjected two girls to months of sexual abuse has had his jail sentenced slashed by four years.
William Aitken, 42, of Dunfermline, raped and sexually assaulted the girls from the ages of 13 and 14.
When he was jailed in April for 16 years at the High Court in Edinburgh, Police Scotland said the two vulnerable teenagers had suffered horrendous abuse.
Jurors heard how Aitken would give his victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, money and cigarettes before preying on them.
Law Lords reduced the sentence to 12 years on appeal.
Aitken’s victims suffered repeatedly at his hands, one over the course of two years and the other over 10 months.
The sentence imposed on Aitken, of Keir Hardie Terrace, included concurrent periods of five and 10 years for the two charges in relation to the younger girl.
He was also sentenced to five and six years concurrently for his offences against the other girl, but with these terms consecutive to the first two.
Aitken was considered likely to reoffend and trial judge Lady Wolffe said the initial sentence reflected the fact Aitken was a “calculating and predatory” individual.
Following Aitken’s appeal Lord Bracadale said Lady Wolffe had not taken sufficient account of the “significant and unexplained” delay in bringing Aitken to trial after he was charged in September 2010.
He also said: “We consider that in this case, in addition to the issue of delay, the cumulative effect of the consecutive sentences has produced an overall sentence which is excessive, particularly in the case of a first offender.”
Jailing Aitken, Lady Wolffe had told him he was guilty of “calculated and predatory sexual abuse for your own sexual gratification of two vulnerable girls in their early teens in respect of whom you were in a position of trust”.
She said: “Sexual crimes involving children are particularly odious.
“Such abuse is not acceptable in a modern society and it is the responsibility of the court to reflect that understanding.”