Moray child rapist Thomas Dow (40) convicted after 14-year campaign of abuse
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A MORAY child molester has been found guilty of subjecting three youngsters to a 14-year catalogue of cruel and degrading treatment.
Thomas Dow (40), of Park Road, Lhanbryde, preyed on two girls and a boy as he subjected them to repeated sexual abuse and violence.
Dow targeted the children at addresses in Inverkeithing and Rosyth, both in Fife. One victim told the High Court in Edinburgh that she did not like it when Dow was looking after her "because he was abusive".
The woman said: "He would hit me, be verbally abusive to me and be sexually abusive.
"Sometimes he would be quite a happy drunk. Sometimes he would be quite an angry drunk. I was scared he would have another drink and become angry."
Dow had denied a series of charges and claimed that the victims of his abuse were liars.
But he was found guilty of committing 13 offences between 2003 and 2017, including crimes of rape, assault, sexual assault and indecent conduct.
He began abusing one girl when she was aged seven and subjected her to repeated assaults during which she was struck, punched and kicked on the head and body.
She was also pushed, hit with a brush and grabbed by the head and hair. Child abuser Dow also repeatedly sexually molested the child and raped her.
Dow began abusing a second girl when she was aged three. She was threatened with violence, kicked, pushed, punched and hit with a remote control.
He also carried out repeated sex acts on the child and went on to subject her to rape.
Dow also subjected a boy to physical violence and sexual abuse. The boy was threatened, pushed, punched and kicked and indecently assaulted.
The former deliveryman told the court that the victims were lying in their evidence and maintained that he was not a bully.
Following the jury convicting him, defence counsel Michael Anderson KC said: "I recognise that it is inevitable that he will be sentenced to a substantial period of imprisonment."
He said a background report would be required on Dow before sentencing him and moved that his bail be continued.
But the trial judge, John Morris KC, remanded Dow in custody ahead of sentencing next month and said: "I don't think bail is appropriate given the jury's verdict."
Dow was put on the sex offenders' register.
