Ex-Queen’s guard gets 9 years for child rapes
He preyed on three girls over 10 years
an arMY veteran who was part of the Queen’s guard at Balmoral was yesterday jailed for nine years for carrying out a campaign of sexual abuse against children.
Between 1986 and 1996 John Paul Hoy subjected two girls to repeated molestation and rape and indecently assaulted a third victim in Edinburgh.
In 1986, Hoy, now 46, was 12 when he began committing sex crimes against a girl aged nine, with the abuse escalating into repeated rapes.
His second victim was seven when he began preying on her two years later. She became the target of repeated rapes.
A third girl was indecently assaulted by him on two occasions when she was between nine and 13 years old.
Hoy, formerly of Saughton, Edinburgh, had been found guilty of 11 charges of rape, indecent conduct and indecent assault.
He lodged a special defence of alibi which stated that for two periods in 2004, he was stationed with the Army at Balmoral. He said he was part of the Queen’s royal guard there.
He was acquitted of a further rape charge against a girl aged 14 or 15 between 2004 and 2006.
Iain McSporran QC, defending, said Hoy continued to deny guilt.
Sentencing Hoy at the High Court in
Edinburgh, judge Lady Scott said: “You blighted their lives and caused significant and obvious damage, especially to the second victim, who spoke of her childhood being taken from her.
“The scale of the abuse to the first and second victims is extraordinarily serious.”
Detective Sergeant Alan Sharp, of Edinburgh’s Public Protection Unit, praised the victims.
He said: “Hoy would have gone unpunished had it not been for them, but now he will spend time in jail.”
Hoy was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.