Brother of Dunblane victim jailed for historic sex abuse of boy, 10, in Falkirk

Charles Clydesdale was found guilty at the High Court in Livingston of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices towards the youngster between 1995 and 1997.

Now 42, Clydesale was aged just 13 at the time of the offence, was cleared of a further two historic charges of indecent assault involving a second young boy and a girl after the jury returned not proven verdicts.

The accused’s half sister Victoria was one of 16 pupils who were killed by gun maniac Thomas Hamilton in the Dunblane massacre in 1996. She was just five years-old.

In October 2009 his sister Michelle Weir drowned at the age of 24 after going for a swim with friends off the Costa Dorada.

The paedophile had denied inducing the boy to play a sexualised game, kissing him on the mouth and repeatedly touching his private parts at an address in Falkirk.

However, the jury accepted the complainer’s evidence of what Clydesdale did to him, including removing his lower clothing and uttering sexual remarks.

Unusually, corroboration for the serious sexual offence, which would now be regarded as “oral rape”, came in the form of a historic statement from a woman who has since died.

She reported Clydesdale to the police for allegedly raping her at a house in Greater Manchester between 1995 and 1997 when she was aged between nine and 12.

Jurors accepted legal guidance that the girl’s testimony demonstrated that Clydesdale had been pursuing a single course of conduct involving sexual abuse of under-age children in similar circumstances at the time he abused the boy.

Kenneth Cloggie, defending, said Clydesdale did not rely on the distressing loss of his two close family members as a reason for his offending and accepted that his crime had crossed the custodial threshold.

Passing sentence, Judge Susan Craig told Clydesdale that the victim’s evidence was that he had ingratiated himself with the child in order to sexually abuse him in a number of different ways.

She said the youngster had not really understood what was happening to him at the time because Clydesdale had operated under the guise of pretending that they were playing a game.

However, she said the victim eventually realised there was something wrong and rejected the accused’s attempts to groom him into further sexual abuse.

She said further allegations not formally brought before the court showed that Clydesdale had been involved in “a pattern of concerning sexual abuse”.

The judge said it was clear from the evidence that the incidents had had a "profound and lifelong impact" on his victims.

She added: “The evidence was clear that you were the perpetrator and they were able to identify you on more than one occasion as their abuser.

“The report shows that you show little remorse for your actions, of course that’s against the context that you continue to deny sexual offending took place.

“You had a number of significant traumatic fatalities in your family including the murder of a sister and the drowning of a half sister.

“Given the gravity of the offence – if this was charged today that would be a charge of rape – I’m satisfied that a custodial sentence is the only appropriate disposal.”

She imposed a sentence of two years imprisonment, backdated to November 22 last year when he was first remanded in custody.

She said he would remain on the sex offender’s register for ten years as well as deeming him as being unsuitable to work with vulnerable groups.