A TEENAGER was ordered to be detained for three years yesterday after carrying out sex attacks on children when he was aged 12 and 13.
A court heard that Steven Thain had been assessed as having a mental age of between nine and ten at the time of the offences. But a judge rejected a defence plea to spare Thain, 19, a jail sentence for the crimes.
Lord Woolman told Thain at the H
igh Court in Edinburgh: "The protection of children from sexual abuse is of vital importance to society." He added: "In this case, I am satisfied that only a term of custody is appropriate."
Thain, of Buckie, Banffshire, was earlier convicted of indecent behaviour towards a six-year-old girl in 2002, when he exposed himself to the child.
He was also found guilty of assaulting and sodomising two boys, aged eight and ten, in the same year. All the offences occurred in the Lossiemouth area of Moray. Ian Bryce, the defence solicitor advocate, argued that Thain's case was exceptional because of his age at the time.
He said: "At the commission of these offences, he was a child."
Mr Bryce said Thain also had learning difficulties and was immature for his age.
Lord Woolman said he had taken into account Thain's age at the time of the offences,
but said he also had to consider other matters, including the very serious nature of the offences and the effect they had had on his victims.
The full article contains 252 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
