The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Victims vindicated as Fife predator jailed for grooming and abuse
COURT: David Glass targeted family in need to gain trust and time alone with children
A “predator” who infiltrated a family at their time of need – only to groom the children and subject them to horrific, “carefully planned” sexual abuse – was yesterday jailed for five years.
David Glass’s victims said they felt vindicated by the serial paedophile’s sentence – because many in the small Fife community where Glass targeted his victims had believed the “arrogant” businessman.
Glass’s abused three boys aged between three and 11, with one of them targeted until just days before he died in a horrific road accident.
A sheriff told Glass – who in 2014 was jailed for three and a half years for virtually identical offences committed between 2004 and 2012 – he was a “danger to children” and added: “Your offending had catastrophic consequences for your victims.”
Speaking outside court, one of Glass’s victims – who cannot be named – said: “I’m still shaking, even now, after having to give evidence. I’m glad he’s been given a long sentence.”
A family member added: “He tried to make out in court that he was a businessman who was being targeted by the boys for money.
“The boys were so brave to stand up and tell the jury what happened to them.
“When he gets out next time he won’t be welcome back in the area. He has been exposed now.”
A trial at Dundee Sheriff Court heard how Glass befriended the parents of his victims when they were going through “personal difficulties”.
He won their trust and confidence – and used that to convince them to allow him to spend time alone with their children.
Then, over the course of almost two years in the late 1980s, he subjected two of his victims to repeated vile sex abuse at his caravan in the East Neuk of Fife.
The abuse only stopped when one of the boys died in a tractor accident in the spring of 1989.
Then in the mid-90s Glass targeted another boy, aged between nine and 11 at the time, forcing the boy to bathe with him and carrying out sex acts on him and abusing him while he slept.
In September 2014 Glass was convicted at Dunfermline Sheriff Court of a string of virtually identical offences
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The boys were so brave to stand up and tell the jury what happened to them
committed in the same area over a eight year period from 2004 to 2012.
He was released from that sentence in early 2016 – but now faces several years more behind bars.
Glass, 59, of Main Street, Kilrenny, Anstruther, denied five charges on indictment of lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour committed between August 1987 and April 15 1989 on two of his victims and between July 1994 and August 1996 on a third.
One charge was withdrawn after a sheriff ruled there was no case to answer, but a jury found him guilty of the other four charges.
Defence solicitor Simon Collins said: “He denied the offences at trial and he maintains that denial now.”
Sheriff Tom Hughes jailed Glass for five years and made him subject to one year’s extended licence upon his release.
Glass was also placed on the sex offenders register for life.
Detective Inspector June Peebles of Fife’s Public Protection Unit said: “Glass is a deviant who preyed on young children and he has been brought to justice thanks to the bravery and strength of the victims.
“We understand that people who have experienced abuse as children often find it difficult to speak out as adults for a number of reasons.”
Any adult concerned about the welfare of a child or young person can call the free NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000. Children can call Childline on 0800 1111.