Published: Wednesday, 27th August, 2008 12:30
Ex-janitor jailed for child sex abuse
By Court Reporter
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Former janitor and youth football coach Steven Martin was jailed for 21 months after admitting abusing two boys.
A FORMER school janitor and football coach was jailed for 21 months on Tuesday for sexually abusing two young boys more than 10 years ago.
Steven Martin (49), who previously worked at Menstrie Primary, would fondle them while they slept next to him in bed.
When the boys awoke to find Martin touching them he would close his eyes and pretend to be asleep.
The abuse was so traumatic for the youngsters, who were just eight and 11 at the time, that one began self-harming while the other still has a difficulty with intimacy.
Martin, of Park Street, Tillicoultry, was also placed on a 10-month supervised release order and added to the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.
He appeared for sentence at Alloa Sheriff Court after he pled guilty to using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards a boy, aged between eight and ten, on two occasions in Pine Grove, Alloa between May 1989 and September 1992.
He further admitted using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards a second child, aged between 11 and 12, between March 1994 and 1995 at Elm Grove, Alloa.
The court heard Martin was the coach of a Clackmannanshire youth football team and would take the first complainer to watch matches.
He regularly had players and his victim spend the night at his home, sleeping on the floor of his bedroom or in his bed.
On one occasion the boy woke up to find Martin touching him and pretending to be sleeping beside him.
His victim grew up suffering from anxiety attacks and began abusing drink and drugs when he started attending secondary school.
Fiscal depute Keri Marshall explained that the second charge referred to a separate incident in which another child was staying at Martin’s home.
He touched the boy while he was sleeping on a camp bed in the living room and when the complainer awoke pretended to be asleep.
The abuse finally came to light last year when Martin’s first victim told his girlfriend and the police were informed.
When Martin was originally interviewed by officers he denied the charges.
At the court on Tuesday, his solicitor Grant Markie said Martin described the first incident as an “accident” in the social enquiry report but accepted full responsibility for the second offence.
He added that Martin felt “physically sick” when thinking about the offences and that it was a “part of his life he wants to leave behind him”.
The court heard that the report referred to Martin as a “high risk” reoffender but Mr Markie asked for leniency.
He added, “It is accepted this constituted a breach of trust but the specific libel falls into the lower end of the scale for this type of offending.”
However, Sheriff Maxwell Hendry saw custody as the only option.
He told Martin, “In the report you at the very least minimize or allay the responsibility for your actions.
“I see nowhere in the report the recognition of the affect this behaviour had on your victims. You do feel significant shame and regret but not of the complainers but for your own son in regards to these actions.”
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