Kirkwall resident guilty of sex abuse
(Date: April 9, 2002)

A woman broke down as she told a jury that a man, who now lives in Orkney, carried out sex acts on her nearly 25 years ago when she was just nine years old.

Mrs A, who cannot be named for legal reasons, broke down in tears several times while giving evidence at the trial of Kirkwall resident Brian Hill (42), of Ingale, Kirkwall, at Alloa Sheriff Court on Tuesday.

Hill denied sexually abusing the woman at her family home in Alloa and in a car between January, 1978, and December, 1980. He also denied committing similar offences against the woman’s younger sister when she too was aged nine.

Mrs A and her mother said in court that Hill was a regular visitor to their house during those years. Mrs A’s mother said Hill would sleep on the settee in the living room or in her son’s bed.

The jury of eight men and seven women listened as Mrs A told fiscal depute Mike McMahon how Hill forced her to carry out sex acts on him and also abused her in her brother’s bedroom. She said Hill blamed her for making him “do these terrible things.”

After Mrs A repeatedly broke down during evidence Sheriff Mackie ordered a break. When she returned he adjourned the case.

Earlier, her mother denied she had been aware of the abuse but later she told advocate Matt Jackson, representing Hill, that her other daughter had started to tell her something when she was 15.

The case took a bizarre twist when Mr Jackson claimed the mother was to blame for the abuse, because she was involved in satanic rituals and regularly took her daughter to a place in North Queensferry where she “was involved in ritual sex abuse” from the age of five. The woman denied the claims.