A 72-year-old man who sexually abused a sleeping child has been jailed for 10 months despite claiming it was “not the most serious of sexual offences.”
The pensioner was caught kneeling beside the girl’s bed with his hand under the duvet when her father came into the room to check she was asleep.
Harold Rattray told Perth Sheriff Court he should not be jailed but Sheriff Fiona Tait ignored his plea and also placed him on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
The court heard how the girl’s father switched his daughter’s light on to check her and discovered his friend Rattray kneeling by the bed sexually assaulting the sleeping 11-year-old girl.
Perth Sheriff Court heard that the pensioner struck while the girl’s father had nipped away briefly to use the toilet and make them a cup of coffee.
Rattray, 72, of Green Road, Balbeggie, admitted sexually assaulting the child under a jacket and open newspaper in October 2013. He also admitted sexually assaulting her again while she slept in April last year.
Sheriff Tait said: “Notwithstanding your age, it seems to me the nature of these offences involving sexual assault on a young child and the impact of that are such that there is no alternative to a custodial sentence.”