A 60-year-old Fife man has been found guilty of sexual offences against two underage girls, including molesting one from the age of ten.
Michael Saint was found to have repeatedly asked one of the girls to model for him and made sexual comments to her from when she was aged 12.
Saint, of Charles Way South, Limekilns, had denied seven allegations of a sexual nature during a four-day trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.
A jury convicted him of six charges.
He was released on bail due to a medical condition.
Molested child
Saint was found guilty of repeatedly placing his hand on and stroking a girl’s leg and repeatedly touching her chest, on various occasions between January 1 2012 and July 14 2015.
The girl was aged ten when the abuse started.
When she was 13, Saint began directing sexual comments to her about her appearance and body, and other remarks of a sexual nature.
He offered to buy her clothes if she allowed him to touch her.
The indecent communication took place on various occasions over a period of nine months.
In his closing speech to the jurors, prosecutor Alistair McDermid highlighted the victim became emotional when giving evidence in court about the sexual offending.
Asked victim to model
Saint also communicated indecently with another girl, starting when she was 12, by sending sexual written communications on various occasions.
He repeatedly asked her to model for him, discussed her underwear, asked her to wear a bikini and made sexualised comments to her.
This behaviour went on from late April 2020 to early March 2021.
The indecent communication charges concerning both girls state the offending was carried out by Saint intentionally and for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification or of humiliating, distressing or alarming them.
Saint was found guilty of a sixth charge of communicating indecently with a woman by sending her messages of a sexual nature on various occasions between December 8 2019 and March 5 2021.
A charge he communicated indecently with another woman was found not proven.
Freed on bail
Defence lawyer Aime Allan said first offender Saint had been in full time employment but lost his job as a result of the allegations.
Sheriff Charles Macnair told Saint: “I will release you on bail, purely because of your medical condition but that’s no indication whatsoever of what might happen when you return to court.
“These are clearly serious offences, in particular… the contact offences, over a period of some three-and-a-half years”.
The sheriff adjourned sentencing until October 27 to obtain background reports.
Saint was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
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