Pensioner who sexually assaulted and abused children over 29 years in Edinburgh jailed for six years

A pensioner who sexually assaulted a boy and subjected four other children in care to “cruel” physical attacks over three decades has been jailed.

Archibald Thorburn, 77, was jailed for six years on Friday for preying on the youngsters, who can’t be named for legal reasons, at locations in Edinburgh between July 1963 and December 1992.

A High Court jury in the Scottish capital heard how Thorburn started abusing his first victim in July 1963 and continued abusing him for another 29 years.

Jurors heard how Thorburn repeatedly slapped, punched and kicked the boy when he was aged just six years old.

He also struck him with a spirit level and forced him to run around a garden with a rope around his neck whilst carrying tins filled with concrete.

The court also heard that on various occasions between July 1963 and April 1968, Thorburn sexually assaulted the boy.

Thorburn also preyed on other children and subjected them to violent physical assaults. He hid puppies from one little girl and told her they had gone missing. She was then forced to go looking for them.

Thorburn, of Edinburgh, stood trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, where he denied any wrongdoing.

Jurors returned verdicts on a total of 14 charges after hearing evidence described by judge Michael O’Grady KC as being “truly shocking”.

He deferred sentence to obtain reports. On Friday morning Thorburn returned for sentencing in Edinburgh.

Passing sentence, judge O’Grady made remarks about Thorburn’s demeanour during earlier proceedings.

Judge O’Grady added: “I have watched up closely throughout these proceedings and as you gave your own untruthful account.

“And even in the face of the most distressing evidence, you have shown not a flicker of emotion, not a hint of regret, only an unconcealed contempt for the witnesses.

“The damage you have done is incalculable. It is clearly damage which lives on and always will in the shadow you have cast over their lives.

“You stole their childhoods and blighted their futures. And whatever sentence this court imposes, there is no changing that.”

Victim vomited after sex act

During evidence, the young boy sexually abused by Thorburn told the court what happened to him when he was young.

He was placed in care at a house in Bath Street, in Portobello, Edinburgh, where other children were also housed.

He said he shared a room with Thorburn, who was older than him, at the house in Portobello.

The man, who is now aged 69, said that Thorburn told him to carry out a sex act on him, which resulted in the victim vomiting on the carpet.

He said: “I was made to clean it up.”

He said he could not tell anyone and said: “It was ‘our secret’.”

He said of Thorburn: “I was scared of him from day one. He had a temper on him. He would just lash out.”

He said that when he first moved into the premises, it was also a guest house. He said: “We had chores that we had to do before we went to school.”

He was asked what would happen if chores were not done properly and replied: “Quite frequently we would get hit with slippers or shoes or belts.”

He said Thorburn would participate in disciplinary procedures such as belting the children.

He said: “He was like the enforcer.”

Sometimes he was made to run around the back garden with heavy cans of concrete.

He said: “We would put them over our shoulders and were made to run round in a figure eight shape in the garden. If we fell, we had to get up and do however many laps we were told to do.”

The man told the court that he was also battered with a scaffolding pole.

He added: “He was hitting me on the body with it, my legs, my arms, a couple of times on the head.”

Thorburn shaved children’s hair as punishment

The court heard that on various occasions between June 8, 1965 and March 6, 1968, Thorburn also subjected a girl who was aged nine to violent physical assaults.

The court heard that Thorburn shaved the child’s hair and assaulted her with a broom handle.

Jurors also heard that during the same time period, Thorburn also forced another eight-year-old girl to take scalding hot and freezing cold baths as a “punishment”. He also forced her to stare at a photograph of him over a “period of hours’ and he struck her if she took her eyes off the image.

Thorburn also forced the little girl to go to school in soiled underwear, and he hid puppies from her.

During the mid 1970s, Thorburn also preyed on a 13-year-old boy, and he subjected him to violent physical assaults over a three-year period. On one occasion, the court heard how he brandished a hot poker at the boy and threatened to brand him with it.

Thorburn also struck his own father on various occasions between 1965 and April 1985 by repeatedly punching and kicking him.

The court also heard that between July 23, 1963 and January 20, 1971, Thorburn “cruelly and unnaturally” treated another boy by repeatedly slapping, punching and kicking him on the head and body. He also shaved the youngster’s head and forced him to watch as he punished other children

Thorburn denied committing sexual offences against the boy.

Speaking about the allegations, Thorburn said: ”It’s horrible.”

However, jurors refused to believe Thorburn’s evidence and returned verdicts of guilt.

Offences ‘cruel and wicked’

On Friday, defence advocate Brian McConnachie KC told the court that since being remanded, Thorburn was being investigated for bowel cancer.

Mr McConnachie added: “He is finding life in custody very difficult.”

Judge O’Grady told Thorburn that he was “bound” to have regard to his age and his lack of previous offending in imposing sentence.

He added: “Nonetheless, that sentence must be anchored in the appalling circumstances of these offences and your cruel and wicked conduct.

“All of your victims were vulnerable, damaged, rejected, defenceless and helpless, as you well knew.

“Indeed, you taunted them with the fact.

“All of them were grotesquely used and abused by you, in body and soul, their childhoods unfolding in fear and humiliation and cruelty for no reason beyond the pleasure and satisfaction which it so obviously gave you to treat them as you did.

“You deny your guilt. You accept no responsibility. You blame and denigrate your victims.”

Thorburn was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.