Pervert faces return to jail for abusing two girls over three decades

A PERVERT released early from a jail sentence for child porn crimes has admitted subjecting two girls aged as young as 11 to years of sexual abuse spanning three decades.

Douglas Ashall, 57, began abusing one girl in 1974, while a second girl was his victim from 1987 until 1991.

Both girls were aged between 11 and 16 at the time of the abuse and the offences only came to light when they told health-care professionals years after the incidents.

Ashall was interviewed by police and admitted what he had done before being arrested in May last year.

The father of three was initially jailed for 18 months in June last year after being caught with hundreds of child porn pictures.

After an appeal, this was reduced to 12 months and he served just six months in custody before being released on a tag, but yesterday at Edinburgh Sheriff Court he pleaded guilty to four charges of lewd and libidinous behaviour and faces being returned to jail.

The first girl, now 47, was abused at a home in the Broomhouse area of Edinburgh from January 1974 to December 1978. The second was subjected to attacks between January 1987 and January 1991 in Gilmerton.

Ashall also admitted one charge of sexual assault over attacks on the second girl while she was 16, during 1991. In each offence, Ashall admitted touching the girls' private areas and making them touch his.

Speaking about Ashall's first victim, fiscal depute John Kirk said: "It was when Ashall was within the house, when nobody else was in the premises, that these incidents of abuse took place.

"At the time she did not tell anyone about it out of fear and confusion."

Sheriff Elizabeth Jarvie, QC, deferred sentence until next month.

Ashall, of Broughton Place, Edinburgh, was put on the sex offenders register and bailed until the next hearing.