A former pastor from Fife has been jailed and made subject to registration indefinitely for molesting two young children.
Remorseless Stephen Blues, 50, worked in the care sector with children and vulnerable homeless people.
He sexually assaulted a girl on various occasions over a four-year period when she was under the age of 13.
Blues was also convicted of assaulting the girl by kicking her on the body to her injury on another occasion.
He also sexually abused a young boy on one occasion and assaulted him on another.
Blues appeared for sentencing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court via videolink from prison, having been remanded after being found guilty following a jury trial last month.
Custody ‘only appropriate sentence’
Defence advocate Alan Melvin-Farr said Blues maintained his innocence, is a first offender and had suffered from mental illness in recent years, for which he takes a number of medications.
The lawyer said his client was in care at a young age and later obtained a degree in theology and became a pastor and worked in this role for nine years.
Mr Melvin-Farr said Blues went on to work in roles which involved providing support for homeless people and young people.
Sheriff Charles Macnair told Blues that the sexual assault on the girl was particularly serious and over a prolonged period and included touching her in her genital area.
The sheriff said: “For whatever reason you show no remorse.
“In my view only a custodial sentence is appropriate.”
The sheriff jailed him for a total of two years and nine months for his offending, backdated to May 30.
He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.
Survived bridge fall
Blues, formerly of Wemyss Street in Rosyth, went on trial last month facing a number of allegations he sexually and physically abused young children.
During the trial, video recordings were played of police interviews with the girl, who described how Blues would sexually assault her.
She said the touching began when she was about nine years old and “got worse after that,” saying he would sometimes touch her private areas.
The trial also heard Blues suffered from mental health issues and survived falling from the Forth Road Bridge in 2012.
He was left in an induced coma for two weeks and needed intensive care for another seven before being sectioned and detained for 18 months.
Blues told the trial he was heavily medicated as a result of mental health issues and still is medicated for this.
He had denied all of the allegations but a jury took about two hours to find him guilty of sexual abusing and assaulting two children.
A fifth charge of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards the boy was found not proven.
