Paedophile jailed for five years dodges victim payout via bankruptcy

Glass was jailed at Dundee Sheriff Court.

David Glass, a 59-year-old businessman was jailed for five years in January for sexually assaulting young boys at his caravan in the East Neuk, Fife.

His victim is calling for an end to legal loopholes which allow abusers to dodge paying their victims.

“It makes me sick imagining he’s grinning away in his cell thinking he’s dodged the compensation while, God forbid, he still has cash waiting for him on his release,” he said.

“It makes me wonder how many other victims have suffered the same blow.”

Glass, from Anstruther, who ran plant hire, building and commercial property firms, claimed he had debts totalling £600,000 and declared himself bankrupt while behind bars at Perth.

It is understood Glass sold off properties before declaring himself bankrupt.

Liquidators are now seizing available assets but it is unclear who is to be paid and how much they will get.

His victim said: “After everything that’s happened it just feels like Glass has found a new way to abuse me.”

Glass was jailed at Dundee Sheriff Court in January this year and placed on the sex offender’s register for life.

At the time a sheriff branded him a “danger to children”.

Over the course of almost two years he subjected two of his victims to repeated sex abuse at his caravan in the East Neuk.

The attacks only stopped when one of the boys died in the spring of 1989.

Glass was convicted of abusing a third boy, aged between nine and 11, in the mid-1990s.

Glass, who was convicted of a string of similar offences at Dunfermline Sheriff Court in September 2014, was ordered to pay £150,000 in damages with 8% interest backdated to 1986 when the crimes were first committed – working out as a final sum of £393,000.

Just months later in April it emerged he filed for bankruptcy.

His victim added: “Everyone in the area knows how rich he was – even before he sold his assets.

“So what happened to that money?

“If the courts have the power to order compensation then don’t they have the power to freeze assets to ensure victims get the compensation that has been ordered?

“Is it not the first thing that paedophiles are going to do to avoid paying their victims’ compensation claims?

“Those in charge need to tighten the rules so survivors aren’t left out in the cold.”

Kim Leslie, specialist abuse lawyer and partner at Digby Brown Solicitors, said: “Our client has suffered horrendously at the hands of David Glass and was forced to endure decades of emotional torment that followed.

“We are now pursuing a civil claim but it would be inappropriate to comment further.”