A crofter and Tirryside Paedophile, John Spence, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl with a firearm while compelling her to lie naked on the floor at a residence in Fife.
John Spence’s offences constituted a series of physical, emotional, and sexual abuses inflicted upon two females at multiple locations in Fife and Sutherland over a duration of around 15 years.
A trial revealed that John Spence, 59, limited their access to food and drink, prohibited bathroom use, removed their pants and struck them on their genitalia.
He aimed a firearm at a youngster and issued a threat to shoot her.
John Spence, a former Army soldier and current crofter near Lairg in Sutherland, refuted the allegations but was unanimously convicted by a jury on seven counts after a trial at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.
He was found guilty of employing lascivious, indecent, and lascivious conduct towards his two young victims, in addition to assaulting and neglecting them, and subjecting them to sexual remarks.
After the guilty verdicts, Sheriff James Williamson informed John Spence that he was accountable for a “litany” of cruelty directed at the children.
The sheriff stated, “These charges are among the most serious this court is likely to encounter.”
Sheriff Williamson proposed that the case might have been adjudicated at the high court and granted the 15 jurors – several of whom grew emotional during the proceedings – an exemption from jury service for 10 years due to the case’s distressing character.
John Spence’s initial victim recounted an occurrence in the sitting room of a residence in Fife when she was eight years old.
The woman said John Spence was polishing a gun and began ranting about her being an “ugly little girl” and asked her to take off her clothes and lie on the floor.
She continued: “He wanted me to lie on the floor on my front like a starfish. He did not use the word starfish but told me to spread my arms and legs out”.
She then lay on her front as he continued “pacing back and forward” in what she described as a “surreal situation”.
The woman continued: “He just booted my bits. He kicked my vagina”.
Asked by prosecutor Ronnie Hay what happened with the gun, the woman said John Spence penetrated her with it.
She recalled the pain and bleeding. She said she had difficulty going to the toilet at school afterwards.
The woman said John Spence also threatened to shoot her on two or three occasions and pointed a gun at her once.
He also directed another person to shave her hair off, leaving her looking “like a little boy”.
She said she used to “pray to God” to be saved from him.
The trial heard that John Spence did not allow the young victims to use a toilet and that they ended up urinating next to a boiler.
He also made them sit on a floor to eat and restricted their food.
Both of the women spoke of being smacked on their bottom and vagina, at times with their trousers and underwear pulled down.
His second victim said John Spence once assaulted her by lifting her off her feet by the collar and dropping her and, on another occasion, held her head at a sink.
She said he also once made a threat to her to kill a dog.
The woman recalled John Spence giving her alcohol when she was a young teenager and being restricted water.
She said John Spence also made sexual comments to her as “a laugh” and showed her adult sexual images.
In cross examination, defence counsel Duncan McPhie suggested the incidents the woman spoke about never happened but she replied: “They did happen.
“They changed my life and ruined my life.
“I can not live as a normal, functioning human being and won’t get the chance to because of things he put me through”.
The trial heard that John Spence verbally abused his victims, referring to them in derogatory terms.
Following the guilty verdicts, Mr McPhie called for his client to be bailed ahead of sentencing to obtain background reports, highlighting that John Spence is a first offender, has been on bail for more than two years, and has no other criminal cases.
Sheriff Williamson deferred sentencing on John Spence until July 10 to obtain reports and continued his bail meantime but warned John Spence, of Rowan Croft, Tirryside, Lairg, that the expectation is he will receive a lengthy custodial sentence.
John Spence will also be put on the sex offenders register.
The sheriff explained his decision on bail by referring to the fact John Spence appears in court as a first offender aged in his late 50s and has been on bail since November 2022, a “considerable period”.
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