East Lothian man facing jail after historic sex abuse of children
The victims went to the police after opening up to each other as adults
An East Lothian man who carried out historic sexual assaults on two young children while he was a teenager is facing a jail term.
Mark Knight preyed on the two victims while he was living in the same house as them between 1990 and 1996.
Knight, now 52, carried out three assaults on a child who was aged between nine and 13-years-old at the time. He also asked the child to perform sex acts and carried out a solo sex act in his presence.
Knight sexually assaulted a second child when he touched their buttocks and genitals and induced them to touch his genitals when they were aged between four and seven-years-old.
The attacks all took place when Knight was aged between 16 and 21 at an address in North Berwick, East Lothian, between August 1990 and May 1996.
The victims did not tell anyone about the assaults but decided to go to the police after opening up to each other as adults in 2021.
Knight, from Dunbar, East Lothian, denied the historic sex attack allegations but was found guilty by a jury following a two day trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Wednesday September 2.
One victim told the trial Knight came to live with their family in the early 1990s and was first targeted while using the bathroom. They said Knight entered the toilet and removed his trousers and made them perform a sex act on him.
They told the court Knight also played strip poker with them where similar acts took place. The victim described a third incident where Knight sexually assaulted them in a toilet in a public park.
They told the jury they had hidden the attacks on them before finding out the second victim had suffered similar assaults during a conversation five years ago.
When asked by prosecutor Zoe Nugent: “Would you have told anyone if [name withheld] had not told you?”
They replied: “No, I don’t think so. I would probably have died with it.”
The second victim broke down in the witness box as they described how Knight molested them when they were aged between four and seven years old.
Following the evidence the jury took under two hours to return majority guilty verdicts on both charges.
Sheriff Gillian Sharp placed Knight on the sex offenders register and deferred sentence for the preparation of a social work report and a restriction of liberty order assessment to next month.
Knight was found guilty of using lewd, indecent or libidinous practices and behaviour towards a child aged between nine and 13 on various occasions between August 1990 and August 1994.
He was also found to have used lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards a second child aged between four and seven between May 1992 and May 1996.