AN 82-YEAR-OLD Dundee man who molested a young child has been jailed for two years.
Ronald McLellan told his victim to keep the attacks quiet or he’d get upset.
McLellan – an ex-RAF senior aircraft technician who served in the forces for more than 20 years – claimed he was “not doing it for his own gratification”, but instead wanted to give the child “pleasure”.
A sheriff today told McLellan he had “manipulated” his victim. When the child finally told of the ordeal, police confronted McLellan, who admitted the abuse.
McLellan, 82, of Caldrum Terrace, pleaded guilty on indictment to a charge of sexually assaulting the child over a two-year period up to this year at an address in Dundee.
Defence solicitor Ross Bennett said: “He is concerned that if he goes in to prison he will never come out.
“He has generally been a good citizen and has done well for his family.”
Sheriff Alastair Brown jailed McLellan for two years and placed him on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
He said: “I note the distress the child now feels which is a foreseeable consequence of what you did and said.
“I don’t know whether the effects are likely to be long lasting but it must be a distinct possibility.
“You extracted from the child a promise not to tell anyone and said you would be upset. That was manipulative.
“You misled the child in to thinking it was acceptable.”
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