An Aberdeen pensioner has been accused of sexually and physically assaulting five children over a 29-year period.
William Morrice is facing seven charges spanning almost three decades involving three girls and two boys between 1974 and 2003.
The 78-year-old, who denies all the allegations, was unable to attend Aberdeen Sheriff Court due to a broken ankle and defence agent Lynn Bentley asked for the case to be continued in his absence.
The charges against him include assaults, including tying one child to a bedframe, locking another in their room and hitting another repeatedly with a slipper.
Denies the charges
It’s claimed he indecently assaulted one young girl at a Bucksburn house between November 1974 and March 1976 and physically abused her by repeatedly striking her body with his hand, a belt and a slipper over a sixteen-year period between 1974 and 1990.
Another girl was also allegedly sexually assaulted at a property in Jesmond Avenue between October 1985 and July 1991.
Morrice also denies wilfully ill-treating a different young girl by hitting her on the body with a slipper and tying her arms to a bedframe with a rope.
It’s also alleged that between June 1992 and February 2003 he physically assaulted a young boy by shouting and swearing at him, hitting and seizing him on the body and placing him in a headlock to his injury.
Late wife also features
A final charge claims that Morrice, while acting alongside his late wife, mistreated another young boy by withholding food from him, locking him in his room for “extended periods of time” and banning the boy from using the toilet at night time.
Morrice, of Rowett South Road, Aberdeen, had his case continued until June this year.
For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen and the latest crime and breaking incidents, join our new Facebook group HERE.
