A MORAY MAN has begun a four-year jail sentence after being found guilty of sexually abusing children over a 40-year period.

Alexander McLean, 63 and whose address was given in Portknockie, was found guilty off ‘lewd, indecent and libidinous practices’ on four children, the youngest of whom was just six years old.

Elgin Sheriff Court learned that McLean’s first two offences dated to the 1970s at addresses around Falkirk. He moved to Moray in the 1980s and it was in 2014 that he abused a third child. McLean was also found guilty of the same offences against a young girl between 2015 and 2016.

In court his defence advocate Bill Adam asked Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov to show leniency in sentencing McLean, saying that his wife was in poor health and his client was concerned over the impact a long sentence might have on her.

However, Sheriff Pasportnikov said that no sentence she passed could ever return the innocence to the children. The sheriff said: “Only you are to blame for the disgusting things that happened to these children – it was through no fault of theirs.

“These were despicable offences and the abhorrent behaviour was carried out repeatedly over a period of more than 40 years. Statements obtained from the older victims show that the effect has been devastating to them – they made for distressing reading.”