A sex predator who was jailed for more than 15 years after a catalogue of rape and abuse against vulnerable children and adults has lost an appeal against his sentence.
David Robertson (58) had challenged the penalty imposed on him by a judge who branded him “a substantial risk to the public” while at liberty.
Lord Boyd of Duncansby imposed prison terms totaling 15 years and four months on the ex-community centre worker and ordered that he be kept under supervision for a further 10-year period.
The judge told Robertson, formerly of Shapinsay Square, Aberdeen: “No one who sat through this trial could fail to be moved by the accounts of abuse at your hands.”
Robertson was convicted of 25 offences, including raping two women and a girl, committed between 1975 and 2011, involving a total of 16 victims.
The sentencing judge pointed out that seven of victims were underage girls, two were adult women with learning difficulties and on of his two male victims also had learning difficulties.
Robertson, who formerly worked at the Lord Provost Henry E Rae community centre, in Aberdeen, preyed on victims at addresses in the city and at a holiday village at Arbroath and at a caravan park.
Following his sentencing at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2014 lawyers acting for him brought an appeal against the penalty imposed on him.
But Lord Menzies, sitting with Lady Cosgrove, rejected the sentence appeal at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.