Jailed: Man who sexually abused girl of 14 in sick bed

James Lochrie: high risk of reoffending. Picture: Ciaran Donnelly

A judge told James Lochrie at the High Court in Edinburgh he had been unanimously found guilty of “three extremely serious sexual offences against female children in their early teens”.

Lord Pentland said that the evidence at Lochrie’s earlier trial showed he had a sexual interest in teenage girls and that the abuse he perpetrated caused serious harm.

“Society abhors the sexual abuse of children,” the judge said. “You have evinced no remorse or the slightest concern for any of your victims.”

A background report prepared on Lochrie, 41, had categorised him as “a high and imminent risk” of further offending.

Lord Pentland also ordered that Lochrie should be kept under supervision or a further three years. He told him he would be on the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life.

Lochrie’s sex crimes began in 2006 when he carried out sex acts on a 14-year-old, who was recuperating from illness, after visiting her at her home in West Lothian while her mother was at work.

Another victim who was sexually assaulted by Lochrie at a house in a village in West Lothian told his trial that the abuse left her feeling “used, dirty, uncomfortable”.

The teenager said that Lochrie put a hand over mouth as he carried out the sex attack on her at the age of 13 in 2013.

A friend of the girl earlier told the High Court in Edinburgh that she later informed her Lochrie was “a paedophile”.

Lochrie also went on to have underage sex with a girl, aged 14, in Glasgow and her mother found a message from him on her daughter’s phone.

Lord Pentland earlier said that evidence at his trial demonstrated he was “a dangerous, manipulative and calculating sexual predator”.

Lochrie, of Castlemilk, in Glasgow, had faced a string of sexual offence charges during a trial. He denied indecency towards the first victim, assaulting the second and unlawful sexual intercourse with the third underage girl, but was unanimously found guilty of the offences by a jury.

The trial heard that the first victim had revealed to a family doctor in 2008 that she had been sexually abused by him and was getting counselling.

The victim, now 23, said she was “quite young” and Lochrie “went on to tell me he could explain to me the sexual things that do go on”.

She said he then carried out a sex act on her. He later got the girl to perform a sex act on him.

Advocate depute Steven Borthwick told jurors that it was Lochrie’s “own selfish sexual gratification” that drove his behaviour.