Pensioner facing jail over sex attacks on young girls

Ronald Anderson had denied touching a nine-year-old girl’s buttocks at his home in St Clairs, Eyemouth, between April 2001 and April 2003.

The 67-year-old had also pleaded not guilty to touching a 13-year-old girl’s breasts at a house in Selkirk between December 2003 and May 2005.

The younger victim told the trial she had been staying overnight at the home of Anderson and his wife, and he came into the bedroom she was staying in that night and felt her bottom.

She decided to report the matter around 15 years later after seeing a picture of Anderson and becoming concerned that he might be working with children.

Anderson was found guilty following trial of sexual assault and lewd and libidinous practices.

Following that verdict, it emerged that Anderson was jailed for 54 months in 1988 at the High Court in Edinburgh for similar offences.

Sentence was deferred until December 10 for background reports, and Anderson was placed on the sex offenders’ register in the meantime.