A SEX predator from Dunfermline who plied child victims with drink, cigarettes and money as he subjected them to repeated abuse has been jailed. 

Derek Lamond, 59, of Arthur Street, molested two girls and carried out sex acts on them at addresses and in cars in Fife over more than two decades.

The former farmworker went on to rape one victim and subjected the second to an attempted rape attack.

Lamond had denied a series of charges during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh but was found guilty of the 10 offences a jury was asked to return verdicts on.

He was unanimously convicted of nine crimes and found guilty of a 10th by a majority verdict. The offences included rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and indecent conduct.

Lamond's sex crime spree began in 1995 and continued until 2017. He targeted victims in Dunfermline, Steelend and other locations in Fife.

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He began abusing his first victim when she was aged just four and started touching her and carrying out sex acts. He also got the child to carry out sex acts on him.

During the repeated targeting over years he provided the girl with alcohol and cigarettes.

On one occasion when she was aged between seven and 10 he assaulted and raped her in a parked car in Fife.

Lamond began abusing a second girl when she was aged seven. He gave her money, drink and cigarettes over a period of years.

He would instruct the child victim to expose her breasts and touched and demanded to lick them. He also subjected her to sexual abuse while she was sleeping.

Lamond tried to rape the girl during an assault on one occasion at a house in Fife.

During an interview with police, after the abuse came to light, he denied touching the victims in a sexual manner in any way and said: "I think it has all been made up."

Lamond avoided a prison term in 2017, for sexually assaulting a girl, with a member of the victim's family telling the Press they were "absolutely disgusted" with the sentence at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

This time he was in the high court. Lamond was on bail during the trial but following the verdicts he was remanded in custody for the preparation of a background report ahead of sentencing.

The trial judge told him: "You have been convicted of very serious charges. Although you have previous convictions you have never previously served a custodial sentence."

Lord Renucci said Lamond was no longer presumed innocent and said a jail sentence was "inevitable".

He was placed on the sex offenders' register and will be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow next month.