Former head teacher who filmed himself raping girl jailed

A former head teacher who filmed his rape and abuse of a girl during almost a decade of sex assaults on the victim was jailed for nine years yesterday.

Arthur Hutchinson ,74, moved to Thailand after retiring from the teaching profession and later began molesting the child from the age of eight.

But Hutchinson’s exploitation of the victim escalated into repeated rape sd uring some of which she was unconscious after he used a cloth soaked in lighter fuel to sedate her.

He amassed a collection of photographs and more than 50 hours worth of videos showing the abuse which were found by police on his computer equipment after she moved to Scotland to pursue higher education studies

The victim opened up to a counsellor after an argument with therapist and sub bed uncontrollably as she revealed what she had been subjected to. Police were contacted and officers arrested Hutchinson in Aberdeen.

A judge told Hutchinson at the High Court in Edinburgh: “Your off ending involved a sustained course of conduct against your victim over a period of nine years.”

Lord Fairley pointed out that during that period Hutchinson had “intoxicated and subdued” the victim with lighter fuel to facilitate his offending.

The judge said that the crimes had involved “a high degree of coercion and control” by the former schoolteacher.

He said a background report prepared on the offender showed that he demonstrated“little or no empathy or understanding of the effect of you long term abuse”.

Lord Fairley told him that he had been convicted after a trial he would have faced a 16-year sentence, including 13 years imprisonment. But the judge said that following his earlier guilty pleas he would sentence Hutchinson to nine years in custody with a further three years period of supervision.

Hutchinson, who followed proceedings by a video link to Grampian prison, earlier admitted sexually assaulting the girl from the age of eight in December 2010 in Thailand and later raping her in the Asian country and at an address in Aberdeen. He also pled guilty to making indecent photos of the child between September 2014 and January this year in Thailand and Scotland.

Advocate depute Richard Goddard QC told the court that Hutchinson was “very controlling” of the child victim.

The prosecutor said her family was poor and lived in relative poverty and the girl felt a responsibility to obtain and education to provide for herself and her family in the future.