Serial paedophile gets 21 years after trying to murder victim with mallet

Published on 25/03/2011 16:16

A MAN who sexually abused three girls and later tried to murder one of his victims by repeatedly hitting her over the head with a mallet has been jailed for 21 years.

Robert Young, 38, was yesterday told by a judge that he had committed indescribable crimes of indecency against the children.

The abuse had remained secret until one of the victims, then an adult, was attacked by Young, of Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, and she broke her silence.

The woman, now 21, declined to comment as she left the High Court in Edinburgh after seeing Young receive one of the longest sentences, short of a life term, in recent times.

Young had denied a series of offences but was convicted by a jury after a trial earlier this month at the High Court in Glasgow.

He was found guilty of seven indecency charges - spanning the period from 1992 to 2005 - and beginning when he was a teenager and the girls were aged four, six and ten. He was also found guilty of assaulting the girls and attempting to murder the woman in June 2009.

The abuse included showing pornography, molesting two of the girls in each other's presence, and inducing them to perform sex acts together. Young also asked one of the girls to take the contraceptive pill.

Young and the woman rowed after she borrowed money from him and he struck her repeatedly on the head with a mallet and threatened to kill her. He seized and compressed her throat and she blacked out for a time. He put her in a chair and tied her arms to the chair and kept her captive until relenting and taking her to hospital. Doctors said her life had been in danger, and that she would be scarred for life by her head injuries.

Defence counsel Andrew Lamb, QC, said Young, a first offender, maintained his innocence. He added that Young had taken the woman to hospital and had remained with her. Police described him as "very distressed" and apparently concerned about her condition.

Mr Lamb asked the judge, Lord Malcolm, to impose sentences which would give Young "optimism for the future".

Lord Malcolm told Young that he had been assessed as posing a high risk of further offending.

"The terms of the (sexual) charges speak for themselves. No words of mine can adequately describe the gravity of your conduct towards three young people. On a regular basis, you abused them in the most disgraceful of ways, starting when they were very young and all for your own gratification. It is clear that only a lengthy custodial sentence would be appropriate," he said.

Lord Malcolm imposed a term of 15 years to cover the indecency offences. He said: "As if all of this was not bad enough, you have also been convicted of the attempted murder of your third victim by hitting her on the head with a mallet and rendering her unconscious by a necklock."I require to consider the total effect of the two sentences and on this charge I impose a term of six years, to follow consecutively."

Young showed no emotion as he was led from the dock.