East Lothian man who sexually assaulted two children when he was a teenager jailed
Knight has been jailed and placed on the sex offenders register
A predator who carried out sex attacks on two young children when he was a teenager has been jailed and placed on the sex offenders register.
Mark Knight sexually assaulted the his young victims while forcing them to play strip poker in the 1990s.
Knight, now aged 52, exposed himself and made one child perform a sex act on him after he entered the bathroom of a house in North Berwick, East Lothian.
He also sexually assaulted the child by carrying out a solo sex act and touching them at a public toilet at a park in the town.
Knight was aged between 16 and 21 when he preyed on the first victim who was between nine and 13-years-old at the time.
The second child was assaulted between the ages of four and seven-years-old.
The victims did not tell anyone about the sex attacks but decided to report all the incidents to the police after opening up to each other as adults in 2021.
Knight, from Dunbar, East Lothian, denied the allegations but was found guilty by a jury of two charges on indictment following a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.
He returned to the dock for sentencing on Friday where defence advocate Lynsey Morgan said her client “continues to maintain the position at trial that he is not guilty of the offences he has been convicted of”.
Ms Morgan said: “The author of the report has been left unimpressed by Mr Knight’s unwillingness to accept any responsibility.
“However it is Mr Knight’s prerogative to stand by his position he took at the trial.”
Sheriff Gillian Sharp told Knight he had “deliberately targeted” his victims and the level of harm they have suffered is “incalculable”.
The sheriff said: “You were convicted after trial of two charges of lewd and libidinous practices.
“Your sexual abuse of the victims was calculated and deliberate even if opportunities arose spontaneously.
“There is no evidence of remorse. The threshold for custody is clearly met.”
Knight was sentenced to an 18 month jail term and has had his name added to the sex offenders register for 10 years.
Sheriff Sharp also issued Knight with non-harassment orders banning him from having any contact with his victims for 25 years.
One victim, now in their 40s, told the trial Knight first targeted them while using the bathroom.
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.
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.