DUNFERMLINE PENSIONER JAILED FOR 11 YEARS FOR DECADES OF SEXUAL ABUSE
A DUNFERMLINE pensioner who faces dying in prison was jailed for 11 years after perpetrating crimes of rape and sexual abuse against women and a girl during two decades of offending.A judge told David Drummond, 75, formerly of Balfour Court, that his offending was extremely serious and in the case of one victim "particularly cruel".
Judge John Morris KC said the pensioner continued to deny any wrongdoing but was found guilty by a jury of "serious sexual offences" spanning 20 years, with the victims including a young child.
At sentencing at the High Court in Edinburgh the judge told Drummond, a first offender, that he had taken into account his age and state of health, as well as the victim impact statements that made "quite painful reading".
Drummond, a former plumber, had denied a string of charges at an earlier trial but was convicted of the six offences he faced.
He was found guilty of four crimes of rape, an indecent assault with intent to rape and a further indecent assault committed between July 1978 and December 1998 at addresses in Dunfermline.
His first victim was targeted for repeated assaults and rape over a six year period.
During attacks she was grabbed, pulled and thrown on a bed.
A second woman was attacked on a single occasion by Drummond with intent to rape her between January 1980 and December 1984.
He made a sexual remark to the woman, grabbed her and forced her onto a bed.
He struggled with the woman, tried to pull down her trousers, held her down, gripped her throat and molested her.
The sex predator subjected another woman to repeated indecent assaults and twice raped her when he put a hand over her mouth at addresses in Dunfermline in attacks committed between 1989 and 1994.
His final victim was a 10-year-old girl who he attacked and raped at a property in the city in December 1998.
Defence counsel Michael Anderson KC asked the judge to take account of Drummond's age and said: "It is inevitable that your lordship will impose a lengthy custodial sentence." He added that, given the circumstances, it was "likely, statistically, he will die in jail".
He told the court: "He has found his time in prison, thus far, very difficult, perhaps because he is somebody who worked all his adult life from leaving school." Drummond was jailed in November last year after he was convicted of the offences and his jail sentence was backdated to then.
He was placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.
The judge made non harassment orders prohibiting the rapist from contacting or attempting to contact the victims of his crimes.
