Man guilty of assaulting young boys

A man who inflicted a horrifying injury on a little boy’s genitals and forced another youngster to stand in a circle of Lego blocks and beat him was told to expect a long prison sentence.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Uist told 42-year-old Michael Pryde: “You should be in no doubt you will receive a significant prison sentence for having committed these crimes.”

He called for a background report to be prepared on Pryde ahead of sentencing next month and remanded him in custody.

Pryde, a joiner, from McDonald Park, Balbeggie, was convicted of assaulting a woman and two boys to the danger of their lives after compressing their throats at houses in Perth between 1997 and 2014.

One of the child victims was also assaulted to his severe injury after Pryde repeatedly struck his penis with his hand.

One boy was compelled to stand inside a circle of Lego bricks that Pryde built, sometimes on one leg, and was hit if he failed to comply or stepped outside the blocks.

He was also found guilty of assaulting and verbally abusing a girl and breaching bail.

The three-year-old who suffered serious injuries to his genitals following the beating by Pryde was in hospital for days afterwards.

Pryde was acquitted on a not proven verdict of raping a woman while filming it by camcorder at a house in Perth in the summer of 2006 after supplying her with drugs.

It was alleged he had assaulted her while she was unconscious and incapable of giving or withholding consent.

The 43-year-old woman told the court that she had been drinking and taken lines of cocaine but became drowsy and she later woke up feeling sore and thought sex had taken place.

She later recorded a conversation with Pryde and asked him what would have happened to him if she had taken the tape to the police. He replied: “Seven years.” She had asked what for and he answered: “Rape.”