September 2005
Man jailed for boy sex assaults
A man who abused two boys in Lanarkshire more than 30 years ago has been jailed for six years.
Ian Stewart, 54, apologised to his victims – who were aged seven and five at the time – as he was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh.
He had pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting one youngster in woods near Bothwell, Lanarkshire, in 1970.
Stewart also admitted indecently assaulting the seven-year-old boy near High Blantyre three years later.
Sentencing Stewart of Harpurchey, Manchester, judge Lord Reed noted that he had not been in trouble for 20 years and was not regarded as a particular danger to the public.
But the judge told him: “Sexual offences against young children causes great public concern and courts must reflect that concern in the sentences they impose.”
