An Aberdeen pensioner has been convicted of sexually abusing four young children at a caravan park over a 30-year period.
John Gibson, 79, violated three girls and a boy at Pettycur Bay Holiday Park at Kinghorn, Fife, between 1996 and 2015.
Gibson, of Oldcroft Road in Aberdeen, was convicted by a jury of five charges after a trial at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.
He was remanded in custody and put on the sex offenders register.
‘Deviant course of criminal behaviour’
Sheriff Robert More told Gibson: “These charges represent a deviant course of criminal behaviour towards young children.
“You took advantage of your position to abuse them in the most surreptitious ways.”
Sheriff More said the court heard “appallingly sad accounts” of Gibson’s abuse and the profound impact of it on victims’ lives.
The sheriff noted complainers had the fortitude to give evidence and are a “credit to themselves” and those close to them.
Gibson was found guilty of two sexual assaults and three charges of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards his child victims.
Targeted three girls and a boy
He targeted a girl on various occasions over a four-year period in the late 1990s from when she was aged six.
He exposed his penis, repeatedly touched and rubbed her private parts and pressed his penis against her body.
Gibson violated a second six-year-old girl on various occasions over a five-year period in the early 2000s.
He induced her to touch his penis and played pornographic videos in her presence.
Gibson subjected a third girl to abuse over a seven-year period, also from when she was aged six.
Sex abuser has health issues
He made sexualised comments to her, invasively groped her and induced her to touch and hold his penis.
He also abused a boy over a five-year period from when he was aged five by touching him on the body, penis and buttocks.
Sheriff More deferred sentencing until March 10 to obtain background reports and remanded Gibson in custody.
The length of time he will spend on the sex offenders register will be determined at sentencing.
Defence lawyer David McLaughlin had asked for his Gibson to be bailed and said his client, who has no previous convictions, has a number of health issues.