Ex-QC jailed for sexually abusing four children
Former prosecutor guilty of ‘the utmost depravity’
A FORMER QC has been jailed for ten years over a catalogue of child sex abuse.
John Watt, who was a criminal defence counsel and served as a prosecutor, preyed on three girls and one boy in offences committed over a 14-year period.
The 72-year-old was extradited from the United States to stand trial earlier this year. He was found guilty of one charge of rape, one of indecent assault and three of indecent conduct committed at houses in the Edinburgh area between September 1973 and August 1987.
Yesterday, judge Lord Braid told Watt at the High Court in Edinburgh: ‘The offences committed by you were of the utmost seriousness and depravity and were part of a course of conduct spanning more than ten years. In each case the offences have had a profound and life-changing effect on the victims.’
The judge said Watt continued to maintain his innocence over the abuse.
Lord Braid said: ‘In your role as advocate depute [Crown Office prosecutor] you prosecuted the very type of offence of which you have now been convicted.’
Watt’s first sex crime was committed at an address in the West End of Edinburgh, where he raped a girl who was aged under 12.
Two other girls were later molested by him in their beds at a house in Edinburgh and a ten-year-old boy was subjected to sexual abuse at an address in Leith in 1987.
The girl rape victim told the trial that her father, who was also a lawyer, took her to see
Watt at a house in Edinburgh. The woman, now aged 55, said: ‘I did things to the man which he made me do.’
Two sisters told the trial how their lawyer father often hosted gatherings at their home where Watt and others would be present.
One sister described waking up to find Watt at her bedside before he got in beside her and began touching her inappropriately. Her sister saw him and recalled being ‘frightened’, but the advocate then turned on her and subjected her to abuse.
The court heard their father had subsequently reported Watt to a senior lawyer, who later became a judge, instead of going to the police.
The male victim said he was abused by Watt when the lawyer was supposed to be looking after him while his parents were away. Defence counsel Donald Findlay, QC, told the court that Watt – who was also put on the sex offenders’ register for an indeterminate period – would lodge an appeal.
He said that Watt, ‘in common with any decent individual, deplores the type of conduct that is referred to in these charges’.
Watt gave up the law in Scotland and moved in 1995 to Oklahoma, where he did some work for his wife’s real estate agency.
After the sentencing the two sisters said in a statement addressed to Watt: ‘You thought you’d picked the right kid. The kid of a dad who idolised you and was too weak to stand up to you properly. The kid of a mum who knew it was wrong, but was told that she wouldn’t be believed... The kid who kept her secret for 37 years.
‘Having been found guilty, I think you should know that you picked the wrong kid.’
NSPCC Scotland praised the bravery of Watt’s victims in speaking out.
‘Profound effect on the victims’