Former Edinburgh care home manager found guilty of physically and sexually abusing young girls over years

Roger Shaw sexually assaulted two teenage schoolgirls while he was the deputy officer at the children’s home in Southhouse, Edinburgh, in the 1970s and 1980s.

The deputy manager made sexual comments to the children and labelled one traumatised youngster “a baby killer” after she was forced to undergo an abortion while living at the home.

Shaw, now 79, persecuted the young victims in his care by forcing them to carry out menial tasks, demanding they eat their meals in silence and banning them from leaving their bedrooms. One child was said to have been so terrified of the home manager she had been forced to barricade herself in her bedroom.

Shaw also indecently assaulted a colleague by jumping into bed with her and touching her breasts while the pair were on a work excursion in the Scottish Highlands in the 1980s.

Roger Shaw outside Edinburgh Sheriff Court | Alexander Lawrie

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told the sex assault victims, now in their 60s, made numerous complaints about Shaw but their concerns were ignored and “brushed under the carpet” by the home’s management.

The court heard one victim bravely came forward to report the abuse she had suffered in 2023 and Shaw, from Roslin, Midlothian, was later arrested and charged. He denied all the allegations against him claiming all three women were conspiring against him but was found guilty of five charges by a jury following a trial at the capital court this week.

The court heard from two women who were subjected to the abuse at the capital care home between May 1977 and December 1981.

One victim said she was sexually assaulted by Shaw when she was alone and folding clothes in the home’s laundry room. She said she was “trapped” within the small room and when the manager had walked in he had groped her breasts.

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The second victim told the jury she was assaulted by Shaw in a swimming pool when he swam between her legs and had intentionally touched her. The women said they were also regularly subjected to sexual comments from Shaw and he would stare at their bodies.

The court heard one victim was callously called “a slut” and “a baby killer” by Shaw after she underwent an abortion as a teenager.

The third victim said she worked alongside Shaw at the care home and he had indecently assaulted her when they had taken children in their care on a trip. She said she was in a bedroom with two girls who were sleeping when a drunk Shaw came in and molested her by touching her breasts on occasion between 1977 and 1987.

The woman said she complained on her return to the care home but no action was taken by management.

Prosecutor Claire Green told the jury Shaw’s reign of terror had involved “fear, control and sexual abuse” and the children had been the victims of “institutional abuse”.

Ms Green said Shaw had carried out “opportunistic” offending against the women and the sex attacks had been “traumatising” for them. Ms Green added: “His actions had one sole purpose - sexual gratification.”

The jury took just 90 minutes to return guilty verdicts to all five charges on Tuesday. Sheriff Fiona Sharp released Shaw on bail and deferred sentence for the preparation of social work reports and a restriction of liberty order assessment to next month.