A DEPRAVED "sexual deviant" from Alloa is facing a lengthy jail sentence for a despicable series of sexual offences against children.

Pensioner James Adam had denied a catalogue of offences committed against three girls over 26 years but was found guilty of five offences of indecency, a rape and an indecent assault.

Adam took two girls to watch sex workers plying their trade before subjecting one to a rape ordeal at a house in Alloa, in Clackmannanshire, when she was aged 15. 

He exposed himself to the second 12-year-old girl.

He targeted another victim from the age of four and repeatedly molested her at addresses in Alloa and Sauchie, in Clackmannanshire, and at Holytown, in Lanarkshire, before carrying out a sex attack on her when she was a teenager in a car in Sauchie in 2001.

A judge told Adam at the end of his five-day trial: "You stand convicted now by the jury's verdict of deplorable sexual offences committed against young girls."

The 80-year-old called out "never" as he stood in the dock at the High Court in Edinburgh.

But Lord Pentland continued: "It is inevitable, in due course, I will impose a substantial custodial sentence on you given the gravity of these offences."

The judge said: "I will have more to say about the disturbing circumstances of your offending in due course."

Lord Pentland added: "In my view, each of the victims deserves considerable credit for the courage they have shown in coming forward after all these years to ensure you are brought to justice."

The judge deferred sentence on Adam for the preparation of a background report on the first offender, who was previously on bail, and remanded him in custody.

Lord Pentland told him: "Your counsel has moved for bail. I have no hesitation in refusing that motion in view of the gravity of your offending and the wider public interest."

The judge thanked jurors for their "difficult and distressing public service" during the harrowing case.

Speaking after the case, Detective Inspector Yvonne O'Rourke of Forth Valley's Public Protection Unit, praised the bravery of the complainers who came forward to give evidence.

She said: "James Adam is a sexual deviant and an opportunist who abused the trust of these girls and their families over a period of 26 years.

"I want to commend the bravery of the victims throughout the investigation and trial, which has undoubtedly ensured that Adam has been held accountable for his crimes.

"There is no time limit to bringing perpetrators of sexual offences to justice. All reports will be taken seriously and treated with the utmost sensitivity.

"I'd encourage anyone with information or concerns about sexual crime to contact Police Scotland on 101, or the charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111."

Adam, formerly of Bellevue Road, Alloa, began his offending in 1975 after grooming a vulnerable girl with car trips and cash.

The victim, now aged 53, said that Adam would take her to an area of Glasgow.

She told the court: "There was lots of women walking up and down. I now know it was a place for prostitutes."

She said they would sit in the car and Adam asked her whether she wanted to do that when she was older.

The woman said: "He used to take me runs in his car quite a lot. He used to buy me chip shop suppers. He used to give me money."

She said she was "going on 11, still 10" when she first met him and added it felt great at the time getting that attention from him.

The woman said she came from a "quite poor" background and her mother had a drink problem and she spent periods in residential care as a child.

She said Adam began getting her to carry out sex acts on him. She said: "It all started when I was 10."

The woman said Adam would laugh at her and touch her and make comments on her body and get her to perform "sexual favours".

She said that on a few occasions she went to a former home of Adam in Alloa and told the court: "It was there when I was 15, that's when he had sex with me."

She told advocate depute Dorothy Bain QC that he worked for the railway and she would visit the signal box where he was employed, but could not remember if sexual contact took place there.

Adam was placed on the sex offenders' register.