A father from Dundee was jailed for five years for sexually abusing two young girls when he was still a schoolboy.
Ronald Hathway, 39, repeatedly molested one child when she was aged eight or nine in his home city.
He raped a second victim three times and committed a further attempted rape on her when she was six or seven years old.
The offences were committed over a two-and-a-half-year period between 1996 and 1999 when he was aged between 12 and 14.
Sentencing judge Lord Ericht said at the High Court in Edinburgh a report prepared on the offender assessed him as a low risk of committing similar offences and noted he has no previous convictions of a sexual nature.
Offences across Dundee
Hathway, formerly of Palais Court, Dundee, had denied a series of charges during an earlier trial but was found guilty of five offences – one of indecent conduct, three of rape and one of attempted rape.
Hathway repeatedly molested the older girl between December 1996 and June 1998 at an address in Dundee and an area known as Strawberry Fields, near Pitkerro Grove Cemetery.
During the abuse he got the child victim to perform a sex act on him.
The second girl was subjected to rape attacks in a cellar, a shed and at an area of ground in the Balunie part of the city.
During one of the assaults he put a cigarette in her mouth.
He was also convicted of attempting to rape the girl in a cellar after lowering her clothing and seizing her by the body.
25 years since offending
Defence solicitor advocate Kris Gilmartin said: “He has seven children and another child due.
“He has been in full-time employment since leaving education.”
Mr Gilmartin said although Hathway has previous convictions, they were not for sexual offending and 25 years have elapsed since the crimes.
He said Hathway struggled at school and asked the judge to take into account his intellectual and emotional immaturity at the time of the offences.
The defence lawyer argued it was “an exceptional case” because of Hathway’s age at the time of the abuse and the time gap that has passed since the crimes were committed.
Hathway was placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.
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