A paedophile jailed for historic sexual abuse dating back to the 1980s has been branded a “vile monster” by the family of one of his victims.
John Ritchie was snared when one young girl recorded the abuse on her mobile phone and alerted police.
That prompted an investigation that saw victims come forward and accuse the 65-year-old of sexually assaulting them when they were children.
Following a trial at Peterhead Sheriff Court, a jury unanimously convicted Ritchie of three charges of sexual assault on two teenagers, one of whom he started abusing in 1989.
He was also found guilty by majority verdict on two charges of sex assaults involving a woman and a teenage girl.
Sheriff Ian Wallace jailed Ritchie for over two years and placed him on the sex offenders register for a decade.
‘He groomed these girls’
Describing Ritchie as a “vile and sick person”, a family member of one of his victims said that she was “disgusted” over the breach of trust shown by him.
“He groomed these girls. He’s a vile sick person – a monster,” the girl’s relative said.
“I’m glad he didn’t plead guilty and took this to trial because now people have seen and heard for themselves what he did.”
One of his victims, in an impact statement to the court, described how Ritchie’s abuse still affects her home and school life.
She wrote: “This has affected my life in a huge way. I take panic attacks on a daily basis … my mood has changed. I am angry I didn’t speak up sooner.
“I am now getting counselling. I can’t eat or sleep and now having to take medication. I feel sad, worried and angry all the time now and I always used to feel happy.
“He has totally ruined the last year of my life and I am not the happy girl I used to be.”
Serial sex abuser
Ritchie, who worked as a joiner, was found guilty by unanimous verdict of sexual offences on one teenage girl between August 25 1989 and August 24 1991 at addresses across Aberdeenshire.
The charge states that he pinned her down on a bed where he climbed on top of her and touched her all over her body, including fondling her breasts.
On another occasion, Ritchie climbed on top of the girl while in a car and again sexually assaulted her by touching her with his hands.
At a different address, Ritchie was also unanimously convicted of indecent assault involving the same girl between 1994 and 1994 when she was an older teenager.
It was stated that he pinned her against a wall and grabbed at her breasts and tried to force his hands inside her underwear.
Ritchie was found guilty on a charge involving a second teenage girl whom he indecently assaulted at a pub, near Fraserburgh, by kissing her and grabbing at her breasts and buttocks.
He was also found guilty by majority verdict by the jury on a charge that he sexually assaulted a woman at a hotel in Rosehearty between 2012 and 2013.
The jury unanimously convicted Ritchie of a final charge of sex offences involving a third teenage girl that took place last year at addresses in Aberdeenshire and East Lothian.
He touched the girl’s body and touched her private parts before unfastening his belt and beckoning her to come into his bedroom.
He was additionally handed a not proven verdict on one charge of kissing a woman without her consent.
At Ritchie’s sentence hearing at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, Sheriff Wallace sentenced Ritchie, of Muirison Drive, Rosehearty, to 28 months in prison.
He also placed Ritchie on the sex offender’s register for 10 years.
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