March 2014
Paedophile pensioner jailed for 38-year-old crime
David Watson, 79, molested the boy and induced the child to perform a sex act on him while the child was staying for a sleepover at his house in Dunblane.
Watson abused the boy while he was supposed to be reading him a bedtime story.
Dev Kapadia, prosecuting, said: “The boy recalled that he jerked away from the accused, and remembers the accused saying, ‘sorry, did I catch your skin?’ before continuing.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard the incident occurred at Watson’s home in Dunblane – the house in which he still lives – sometime between April 1974 and April 1976.
Mr Kapadia, the depute fiscal, said it came to light in January 2012, when the boy told an aunt what had happened.
Watson was confronted by his family in May 2012.
Mr Kapadia said: “He immediately admitted that it was true, and said that he hoped it was the end of the matter.”
Police were called in, however, and Watson was detained in June the same year.
He was interviewed at Stirling police station, and admitted what he had done.
Watson, of Murdoch Terrace, Dunblane, pleaded guilty on indictment to using lewd and libidinous practices and behaviour towards the child.
Defence agent Frazer McCready said: “We have to remember that the accused is now 79 years of age and this incident happened about 40 years ago.
“When he was challenged by a family member he accepted that something had gone on.
“We are dealing with a one-off incident, not a continued course of conduct.
“I’m not trying to minimise it, but it was a one off. He has no previous convictions and no ongoing cases.
“His wife is divorcing him and it looks like his family have disowned him – he’s going to be a lonely old man. So to some extent he is already being punished.”
Sheriff William Gilchrist said: “This was a very serious offence.
“The complainer was only eight or nine years old at the time.
“If it were not for your age and the fact the offence was committed 40 years ago I would impose a longer custodial sentence.
“But I am going to impose a custodial sentence.”
Sheriff William Gilchrist sentenced Watson to six months in prison, reduced from nine, and placed him on the sex offenders’ register for seven years.
