An Aberdeen pensioner who sexually abused four young children at a Fife caravan park over a period spanning 20 years has been jailed.
John Gibson, 79, violated three girls and a boy at Pettycur Bay Holiday Park at Kinghorn, between 1996 and 2015.
Gibson, of Oldcroft Road in Aberdeen, appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court from custody for sentencing after a jury earlier convicted him of five charges after trial.
Sheriff Robert More highlighted that Gibson abused young children over a period of two decades in circumstances in which he was entrusted in their care.
He said the gravity of the offending made a substantial prison sentence inevitable.
Sheriff More jailed Gibson for three years, backdated to February 13 when he was remanded.
Gibson was also put on the sex offenders register indefinitely.
He was previously found guilty of two sexual assaults and three charges of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards his child victims.
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.
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 praises victims’ fortitude
Following the guilty verdicts last month, Sheriff More said the court had 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.
Speaking in mitigation this week, defence lawyer David McLaughlin said Gibson, who has no previous convictions, has experienced health difficulties and was being investigated for dementia prior to court proceedings.
The solicitor said Gibson had worked until he was 59 and has a wife who has been estranged from him since these proceedings came to light, increasing his social isolation.
Mr McLaughlin said some might say this is a “sad end” to his client’s life as he enters his twilight years.
The lawyer had asked the court to consider offender supervision for Gibson but acknowledged custody would be the likely reality.