New trial date fixed for Hawick 74-year-old accused of raping girl under age of 13

Edward Swan is also charged with lewd, indecent and libidinous practices towards another girl also under 13 years of age.

The 74-year-old, of the town’s Fairhurst Drive, faces seven charges altogether.

They include two counts of rape, one of them of a girl under 13 years old at the time.

Swan is also accused of two sexual assaults on girls under 13 and another three counts of lewd and libidinous practices towards two girls.

Those offences are alleged to have been committed over a 15-year period between 2002 and 2017.

Swan has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

His case was due to be heard at the High Court in Livingston in West Lothian yesterday,June 22, but as jury trials are not currently going ahead due to the coronavirus pandemic, that diet was discharged.

A new trial date has been set for Monday, August 10, at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Bail was continued in the meantime for Swan.