A convicted child rapist who used “threats and coercion” to abuse three children more than four decades ago has been jailed for 10 years.
John Raymond Taylor, 61, was unanimously convicted by a jury at the High Court in Aberdeen of sexually abusing and raping two girls and a boy at addresses in the city and elsewhere.
Jurors heard harrowing evidence from all three victims, now adults, about how Taylor began sexually assaulting them in the early 1970s.
One of Taylor’s victims stated that he abused her with such frequency as a child she came to believe the behaviour was normal.
The jury found Taylor guilty of seven counts of rape and sexual assault on the three children after deliberating for only two hours.
‘Pain and anguish’
Sentencing him, Judge Graham Buchanan told Taylor that the torment he had caused his victims was “plain for all to see”.
He said Taylor had been convicted of “appalling sexual abuse” of three children over a period of nine years.
“The pain and anguish caused by what you did to the victims was plain for all to see,” the judge said.
“I recognise that a lot of your offending took place when you were young, but by the end of your offending, you were in your early 20s.
“You used threats and coercion to bully your victims into submission.”
Judge Buchanan added that he was aware that Taylor had significant health problems and that a prison sentence would be “particularly difficult” for him.
“However, it is inevitable given the seriousness of the offences that a substantial sentence of imprisonment will be required to be imposed,” he said.
The judge sentenced Taylor to 10 years in prison.
He also placed Taylor on the sex offenders register for life.
Accused laughed at victim
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.”
‘I’m constantly analysing it’
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 a 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 festive season 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.”
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.”
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