I HOPe eVIL uVf raPISt LeaVeS PrISOn In a BOX
Victim had hoped to be in court to see predator sentenced
a CHIlD sex abuse victim terrified into silence after her attacker claimed links to a banned terror group has welcomed his jail term.
Harry Canning, 80, was handed a nine-year prison sentence for sex attacks on two schoolgirls. The court heard he would “probably die in jail” after Judge Lord Weir told him he had subjected two “vulnerable young girls” to “a deplorable course of sexual abuse”.
Victim Ikeyra Kay had revealed Canning had bragged about links to the Ulster Volunteer Force – and had a shrine at home to the terror group.
She contacted police after he was jailed for three years in 2019 for other sex offences against young girls.
Last night Ikeyra, 22, said she hoped Canning would die behind bars. She added: “I am very happy with the sentence.
“It wasn’t anything to do with vengeance – though I hate him for what he did to me and others – but about keeping other children safe.
“If he doesn’t come out of jail in a box he will be so old and decrepit he should no longer be a risk to anyone.”
Ikeyra had hoped the Crown Office would tell her the day of the sentencing so she could have been in court.
She said: “I wanted to be able to look at him so he would understand he’s lost his power over me, and to see the fear in his eyes at the prospect of never being free again.
“I was promised I’d be contacted but it never happened. That’s not right.”
Canning appeared by video link from prison and was convicted of seven charges of sexual abuse, including six charges of rape. The offences took place over “a prolonged period” at Canning’s home in Leven, Fife, ending in 2016.
The court heard the girls went to the police three years later, after seeing newspaper reports about Canning’s conviction for sexual offences against other girls, for which he was jailed for three years in 2019.
He now needs a carer in jail to see to his needs twice a day, and is wheelchair-bound.
Ronnie Renucci QC, defending, said: “Having regard to his age and his level of infirmity it is highly likely that any sentence could well be a de facto life sentence.
The jury in October unanimously found him guilty of raping both victims multiple times when they were just 12, when each was 13 to 15, and when they were 16 and 17.
He has also been placed on the sex offenders’ register for an indefinite period.