Paedophile pensioner jailed for raping girl, 13, and sexually abusing children as young as three

A 71-year-old paedophile has been jailed for six years after being convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl and sexually abusing children as young as three.

The High Court in Livingston.

Alexander Mochar – who had already served a three year sentence for similar sexual offences – was described “a sexual predator who used vulnerable children as his prey”.

A jury at the High Court in Livingston heard that the victim was biologically a girl in his early teens when Mochar took advantage.

The rape was repeated several times a week during trips in Mochar’s brown Volvo car.

The victim realised when they went on a “scenic route” sexual molestation including full sex would be involved even though the victim didn’t want that to happen.

Mochar was also found guilty of lewd and libidinous behaviour towards a neighbour’s eight-year old-boy while he stayed overnight at Mochar’s parent’s home in Blackburn, West Lothian.

He threatened the youngster and repeatedly sexually abused him in a bedroom between 1968 and 1971.

His victim, now aged 58, gave evidence that he thought of jumping out of a window to escape but said he was too terrified to go to his parent’s home a few doors away.

He disclosed the abuse to a psychiatrist years later while being treated for severe depression following an accident at work.

Mochar was also convicted of sexually abusing a vulnerable and disadvantaged 12-year-old girl in his care in 1981 by watching her while she bathed naked at an address in Livingston, and also fondled her.

He was cleared of carrying out a bizarre sex attack on a young girl when she was aged between three and eight-years-old.

The evil paedophile was approved as a foster carer while, unknown to social workers, he was abusing children, the jury was told.

Mochar, who denied all the charges, lived in Livingston at the time. He has since moved to Hayling Island in Hampshire.

Although he put all five victims through the ordeal of testifying against him he choose not to give evidence in his own defence.

In his closing speech, advocate depute Jim Keegan told the jury the evidence showed a clear picture of sexual attacks on children, systematically pursued by the accused, which were so similar in time, character and circumstances that they mutually corroborated each other.

He said: This was systematic and criminal behaviour. You can see it involves children in his care or to whom he had access.

“It involved penetrative sexual abuse of children, furtive and opportunist while he’s in a position of trust – in every case a breach of that trust.

“This is a picture of a sexual predator who used vulnerable children as his prey.”

Sarah Livingston, defending, said Mochar accepted he’d sexually abused three children in the past.

She told the jury: “It was accepted by me in questions that they had been sexually abused.

There’s no question about it. You’re looking at a man who’s sexually abused children.

However, she said that did not mean the jury should find him guilty of all the other offences. She said: “You’re not the lynch mob that could take him and string him up.”

She also questioned whether or not the rape victim had consented to sex with the accused. She reminded the jury the complainer had told them: “I didn’t know how to respond. I felt like a rabbit in the headlights. I said right, OK.”

The jury returned a majority verdict convicting Mochar of the repeated rapes and unanimously found him guilty of three charges of lewd and libidinous conduct.

Following the verdicts, the advocate depute revealed that Mochar had previously been sentenced to three years in prison for two similar sex offences which post-dated the new charges.

Miss Livingston said her client, who suffered from heart problems and cognitive decline, seemed “pretty shell shocked”. She said: “I don’t know if there is such a thing as karma but he’s been very tearful about the outcome of this case.

“There’s been no offending since then. He seems to have stopped so that’s now decades where he’s not offended.

“He’s left rented accommodation in England and he said: ‘That’s my life, what’s in this suitcase’.

After reading two victim impact statements, judge Lord Tyre told Mochar: “These are all very serious offences, made more so because they constitute a very serious breach of trust and involve the systematic abuse of children and young people who, for one reason or another, were entrusted to you. I see that as an aggravating factor.

“I take account of everything that has been said to me this morning , particularly your age.

“It’s never a happy thing to send someone of your age to prison but, given the circumstances of these charges, I have no alternative.”

He sentenced Mochar to six years in prison and told him his name would remain on the Sex Offenders’ Register indefinitely. Scottish Ministers will also be notified of his conviction under laws to protect vulnerable groups.