Ex-police officer jailed for sexual abuse of three children

A detective sexually abused primary school girls over a 17-year period by enticing them into his police house – using the lure of his collie dog, sweets and offering to provide lettuce for a pet rabbit.

Former Detective Constable Iain Reid, with more than two decades’ service with Fife Constabulary, targeted three girls aged six to 12 from 1980 to 1997, Falkirk Sheriff Court was told.

One of the women, now a local government official, reported him three times from 1997 until the police finally acted on the allegations last year.

Reid was sent to prison for four years and four months after a five day trial where a jury of ten women and five men found him guilty of three charges of lewd and libidinous conduct, one of the charges aggravated by abduction.

Sheriff Craig Caldwell told the 66-year-old he broke the trust placed in him as a community police officer to carry out “protracted, sustained, and systematic” abuse of the girls after enticing them into his home.

He added that the victims, who are now all “successful women”, were nevertheless “scarred” by what Reid did.

Sheriff Caldwell told him: “I may say it`s a testament to their character and fortitude, that they were able to confront you with their evidence of your cynical abuse.

“No-one could but be impressed by the quiet dignity and candour with which each of them spoke of your conduct. Nonetheless, despite the fortitude they now display, and the successful women that they now are, they clearly continue to bear the scars of your conduct.”

Sheriff Caldwell said it had “not been difficult” for the jury to dismiss Reid`s defence, which was that the charges were the result of conspiracy and fabrication between the witnesses.

During his trial last month, one of Reid`s three victims, now 46, said he abused her in one of the bedrooms at the police house.

Another victim, now 35, told jurors she could still remember the smell of his “smoky” breath as he pulled her towards her and whispered in her ear.

His third victim, aged 30, said he used to invite her into his house, which she passed on her way back from school.

She described a series of incidents of sexual abuse, which happened “perhaps twice a month” from the time she was six, for five or more years, in the early to mid 90s.

She reported the abuse to a school nurse when she was in primary seven in 1997, but Reid was not prosecuted because there were no other witnesses. She said she reported him again when she was 20, but again no action was taken.

The woman went to the police one final time in 2014 after Reid made a phone call to her mother.

The court heard the offences took place while he was living in a police house in Buckhaven, Fife, and later in his own home in Leven.