A north-east pensioner who subjected a young girl to sickening abuse will spend the next three years behind bars.
Norman Western, 74, targeted his victim on a number of occasions when she was a child in the 1970s and 1980s.
More than 40 years later, he appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, having pled guilty to “lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour”.
At a prior hearing, the court was told Western’s victim had been terrorised by him.
The abuse only came to an end when she summoned the strength to confront him and told him it had to stop.
The court was also told she had suffered a breakdown in her 20s, with the abuse having a “significant” long-lasting impact on her mental wellbeing.
Western was arrested for the crimes in 2018.
He appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court in June, with sentence deferred until yesterday to allow social work reports to be compiled.
Sheriff Graham Buchanan told the pensioner: “Although you are now 74 years of age, I am satisfied that the crime is so serious that a custodial sentence is appropriate.”
Western, of Tullos Crescent in Aberdeen, was jailed for three years and nine months.
He was also placed on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period.