Former RAF man Gordon Pinkerton jailed for decades of sex abuse

Gordon Pinkerton began the abuse in 1963

A former RAF serviceman found guilty of sexually abusing six young girls over a period of almost half a century has been jailed for 15 years.

Gordon Pinkerton, 68, of Aberdeen, preyed on schoolchildren for most of his adult life, subjecting them to abuse at various houses across Scotland.

He raped two of the girls when they were just six years old.

Pinkerton was jailed at the High Court in Glasgow.

The abuse began in 1963 and continued until 2011.

'Blighted lives'

Sentencing Pinkerton, judge Lord Matthews told him: "You were convicted of what can only be described as as an appalling catalogue of abuse of vulnerable young girls.

"You have maintained a denial throughout.

"I have received impact statements from your victims and they say what you did to them has blighted their lives. That is hardly surprising.

"I am told that you are at high risk of re-offending, which is also not surprising given that the offences began in 1963 and ran to 2011."

One victim had told the trial, at the High Court in Aberdeen, that she attempted to kill herself last year because she was ashamed of what had happened to her.