The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Victim could lose £400,000 compensation
Man fears he could miss out after bankruptcy
A Fife abuse victim has called for the closure of a legal loophole which could see him miss out on a near-£400,000 compensation claim.
As a child, the man was targeted by Anstruther businessman David Glass for two years and said “it just feels like Glass has found a new way to abuse me”.
After years abusing three boys in the 80s and 90s, the 59-year-old former building firm boss was jailed in January after finally being brought to justice and successfully filed for bankruptcy from his prison cell.
It is understood Glass sold properties before doing so.
With debts of more than £600,000, creditors are queuing up and it is feared the court-ordered compensation will never be paid.
His victim said: “It makes me sick imagining he’s grinning away in his cell thinking he’s dodged the compensation while...he still has cash waiting for him on his release.”
A victim of a vile East Neuk paedophile says he has been left “out in the cold” after losing out on £400,000 in compensation.
The man was preyed on by sick predator David Glass who, in January, was locked up for five years for sexually assaulting young boys.
Anstruther businessman Glass, 59, who ran plant hire, building and commercial property firms, claimed he had debts totalling £600,000 and declared himself bankrupt while behind bars at Perth.
His victim said: “After everything that’s happened it just feels like Glass has found a new way to abuse me.”
He is currently pursuing a civil claim to retrieve damages from Glass and has called for an end to legal loopholes which allow abusers to dodge paying their victims.
“It makes me sick imagining he’s grinning away in his cell thinking he’s dodged the compensation while, God forbid, he still has cash waiting for him on his release,” he said.
“It makes me wonder how many other victims have suffered the same blow.”
It is understood Glass sold off properties before declaring himself bankrupt.
Liquidators are now seizing available assets but it is unclear who is to be paid and how much they will get.
Glass was jailed at Dundee Sheriff Court in January this year and placed on the sex offender’s register for life.
At the time a sheriff branded him a “danger to children”.
Over the course of almost two years Glass subjected two of his victims to repeated sex abuse at his caravan in the East Neuk. The attacks only stopped when one of the boys died in 1989.
He was convicted of abusing a third boy, aged between nine and 11, in the mid-1990s.
Glass, who was convicted of a string of similar offences at Dunfermline Sheriff Court in September 2014, was ordered to pay £150,000 in damages with 8% interest backdated to 1986 when the crimes were first committed – working out as a final sum of £393,000.
Just months later in April it emerged he filed for bankruptcy.
His victim added: “Everyone in the area knows how rich he was – even before he sold his assets. “So what happened to that money?” Kim Leslie, specialist abuse lawyer and partner at Digby Brown Solicitors, said: “Our client has suffered horrendously at the hands of David Glass and was forced to endure decades of emotional torment that followed.
“We are now pursuing a civil claim but it would be inappropriate to comment further.”