A man who sexually abused and raped three children more than 45 years ago has finally been brought to justice.
John Raymond Taylor, 61, was unanimously convicted of sexually abusing and raping two girls and a boy at addresses in Aberdeen and elsewhere.
The High Court in Aberdeen heard distressing evidence from all three victims, now adults, about how Taylor started sexually assaulting them in the early 1970s.
One told the court that the abuse lasted for years and “became as normal as having breakfast”.
The jury took just over two hours to find Taylor guilty of seven counts of rape and sexual assault on the three children.
Prison sentence ‘inevitable’
Following the verdict, Judge Graham Buchanan remanded the 61-year-old in custody until his sentencing hearing next month and placed him on the sex offenders register.
“You have been convicted of some very serious charges indeed,” the judge told him.
“They go back a long time, and when you started this course of offending you were only 14 years of age.
“As the years went by you obviously became significantly older and more mature and, going by the indictment, it carried on until you were about 23 years of age.
“In those circumstances, and the extremely serious nature of the charges on which you have been convicted, it is inevitable that a significant sentence of imprisonment will be imposed.”
‘It became as normal as having breakfast’
During the five-day trial, one victim told the advocate depute Nichola Gilchrist that she believed she was as young as eight or nine when the sexual abuse began.
She said Taylor had climbed into a bedroom she shared with her sisters using a fire escape ladder.
Sobbing as she gave evidence, the woman said she could remember the metal smell on Taylor’s hand from the fire escape locking mechanism as he held it over her mouth to keep her quiet while he raped her.
The woman went on to tell jurors that Taylor raped her again a few months later.
Asked by the advocate depute how she felt afterwards, the woman said she felt “shocked, hurt and dirty”, adding that when she began to cry Taylor called her a “baby” and “ran off laughing”.
“This went on for years,” the woman said of the abuse, “It became as normal as having breakfast.”
She added that Taylor never once displayed “guilt or shame” and only stopped once she stood up to him, aged 14, by pushing him back when he tried to touch her.
During cross-examination by defence advocate Mark Stewart KC, it was suggested that the sexual abuse never took place.
“What I have told you is what went on,” she said.
“It’s a memory that’s not going away. It’s a memory I have had as long as I could breathe.”
‘Never said sorry’
Another witness also gave evidence stating that Taylor sexually abused him as a little boy, telling the court how he still lives with the horrific memories.
The man – now dad – fought back tears as he told jurors that he can “still feel the touch” of his abuser.
“When I’m with my own kids or when I’m on my own it just pops into my head,” he said.
“I’m constantly analysing it.”
The man went on to say that on one occasion Taylor sexually assaulted him during the Christmas holidays and, as a result, he hasn’t been able to enjoy Christmas throughout his life.
Asked about Taylor’s behaviour following the abuse, the man stated: “He never used to say sorry. He never said sorry or apologised.”
‘I thought it was normal’
Another victim said she was as young as six when Taylor began sexually abusing her by entering her bedroom in the dead of night.
He would then place his finger over his mouth and tell her to keep quiet as he led her to a bathroom to rape her.
The woman said Taylor would continue to do this for many years until she reached adulthood.
“He told me this is what mums and dads do. ‘Everybody does this’, he said, and I believed him,” she stated, as she sobbed uncontrollably.
“I thought it was normal.”
Taylor, whose address was given only as George Mather’s and Co solicitors, Aberdeen, will be sentenced next month at the High Court in Aberdeen.
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