A man who attempted to rape a young girl in a Highland village was yesterday jailed for four and a half years.
Andrew Heeps, 55, admitted at the High Court in Glasgow to trying to rape the girl at a house in the remote village in the early 1990s when she was a young child.
He also pled guilty to sexually abusing another girl at various addresses in Lanarkshire, on various occasions between September 2004 and September 2006 when she was a teenager.
Defence counsel Jennifer Bain said: “Mr Heeps was himself abused as a child and that had an impact on him, although he is not putting that forward as an excuse.
“He has expressed regret for what he did.”
Prosecutor Duncan McPhie said: “The second girl helped him with his work as a delivery driver for a takeaway restaurant.
“He made comments about her breasts and then progressed to him placing his hands on them and making jokes.”
Heeps, from West Lothian, then began touching her private parts and would always say “Go on, just give us a feel.”
The court heard that Heeps went into the girl’s bedroom and got into bed with her, kissed her and then tried to rape her.
In March 2017 the accused contacted his victim on Facebook, she confronted him and then reported him to the police.
Heeps’ other victim, who was sexually abused by him, also contacted the police.
Judge Lord Arthurson placed Heeps, who is a first offender, on the sex offenders’ register and told him: “You have committed extremely serious sexual offences against young girls.”
