A RETIRED police officer has been jailed for four and a half years after sexually abusing teenage air training corps cadets more than 30 years ago.

Colin Fowler, 76, was working for Fife Constabulary at the time of the offences and also served as a leader to cadets at RAF Pitreavie in Dunfermline.

He plied the youngsters with drink, molested and assaulted them at his then home in Anstruther.

Fowler had denied carrying out the sex attacks on two former cadets but was unanimously found guilty last month after a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

He was sentenced today and the judge, Lord Brailsford, told Fowler: "You were found guilty by a jury after trial of two serious sexual offences, sexual assaults, perpetrated between 30 and 40 years ago on the two youths aged between 13 and 16."

He continued: "The offences were perpetrated when you were in a position of trust in relation to both these young persons. You were an officer in the air cadets and in that capacity you were responsible for training given to these youths in the evening."

The judge pointed out that he was also a police officer which was "a position of considerable trust".

Lord Brailsford said Fowler had groomed the victims by making himself a friend to them as well as a teacher and also got to know their parents.

The ex-cop continues to maintain his innocence but after the sentencing his victims said they were not the only ones to be abused by Fowler and urged others to come forward.

At the trial in October, Fowler was convicted of assaulting one teenager by supplying him with alcohol and carrying out sex acts on him at a house in East Green, Anstruther, in July and August 1972.

He was also found guilty of assaulting a second teenager between July 1977 and July 1982, beginning when the victim was aged 13, by giving him drink and carrying out sex acts on him.

During the trial, one of the victims was asked if he had considered reporting the abuse to the police at the time.

He replied: “He was a policeman. He seemed to know everyone in the police anyway.”

The other victim said: “I was in a very confused state of mind at that time. Everything said by Colin Fowler was that I was wanting it. An adult was telling me that I was in the wrong. I felt responsible. I felt guilty and I carried that guilt for a long, long time."

One victim, now aged 62, said that Fowler invited him to stay at his home from about the age of 14 and introduced him to whisky. Fowler began touching him and he said: “Stop. What are you doing?”. But Fowler told him: “You wanted it. You wanted it last night.”

He said Fowler continued to touch him and went on to perform a sex act on him.

Asked if he had wanted Fowler to do these things, he replied: “Definitely no. I was petrified. I was in a state of fear and shock. I just froze, I didn’t know what to do.

“I knew if he got angry, things would get a hundred times worse.”

Fowler’s other victim, a former Army veteran, said he had later been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and went to see a psychiatrist.

The man, now 54, said: “It was during that time I first made mention of being abused.”

He said that Fowler often gave him a lift home after attending the cadets and befriended his parents.

Fowler would also take him to Anstruther for fishing trips and overnight stays but began to subject him to abuse.

The victim said he was subjected to serious sexual assaults on a couple of times when Fowler came home drunk and angry.

Fowler, of Harbourlea, Anstruther, had denied the charges and told his defence counsel, Ronnie Renucci QC, that he was “shocked, amazed and incredulous” when he learned of the allegations.

Mr Renucci said the first offender maintained that he was not guilty but recognised that a prison sentence was inevitable.

He added: "The prison setting will be particularly difficult for him."

He said his age, state of health and because he was a former police officer would perhaps make it more difficult for him than others.

Fowler was placed on the sex offenders' register.

After the case the two victims said they were "delighted" that the jury believed their evidence and returned unanimous guilty verdicts.

They said they were aware that they were not the only ones abused by Fowler and that two others were targeted in the late 1970s, with one subsequently becoming an alcoholic and dying in an epileptic seizure and a second believed to have committed suicide.

They urged others who have suffered abuse by him or who had knowledge of such abuse to come forward.

They said: "We came forward with our evidence to support other witnesses and hopefully see Colin Fowler acknowledge his guilt."