Imprisoned paedophile found dead

Perv less than year into term

An Airdrie predator who molested a young girl on the day of her first Holy Communion has died in prison less than a year into his sentence.

The 56-year-old, who abused the Monklands girl over a fouryear period from the age of four, was found dead at HMP Addiewell in West Lothian on July 27. Jailing Grahames at the High Hourt in Edinburgh in October last year, Lord Burns told him the abuse had a “devastating effect” on his victim, saying “she remains tormented by the memory of what you did to her”. Self- confessed alcoholic Grahames, who had made repeated suicide attempts in the past, was found guilty of indecency towards his child victim between 1979 and 1983, at an address in Airdrie. He committed sex acts on the girl and made her look at sexually explicit pictures. His trial at the High Court in Livingston heard how he had made his victim perform a sex act after she stepped out of her communion dress. The woman broke down in court as she described the abuse.

She said it started as an undressing game called “dungarees” to see who could get their hands into each other’s underwear faster when they were alone.

The woman wept as she told how the assaults happened every time the accused visited her parents’ home, a regular occurrence when she was a child.

She said her mother and father were downstairs, unaware that their daughter was being abused upstairs.

After going to counselling, the woman finally summoned the strength to confront her childhood abuser decades later and drove to his home in May 2016.

She said: “I just wanted to speak to him and ask him ‘why?’”

Before challenging him, she said, she phoned home and put her mobile on Grahames’ mantelpiece so her husband could listen to the exchange.

Her husband said he overheard her ask Grahames why he had abused her and heard him answer: “I don’t know why.”

When the woman told him “that’s not an answer,” he said, the accused responded: “I must be a pervert then. I’m just a pervert”.

The Scottish Prison Service said: “James Grahames, 56, a prisoner at HMP Addiewell has died. A Fatal Accident Inquiry will be held in due course.”

James Grahames, 56 ... has died. A Fatal Accident Inquiry will be held in due course.

Predator James Grahames was found dead in Addiewell prison (right)