Man found guilty of sexually assaulting two young children

Mark Knight preyed on the two victims between 1990 and 1996.

Knight, now 52, carried out three assaults on a child who was aged between nine and 13 at the time, exposing himself and inducing the victim to perform a sex act on him.

He also asked the child to carry out a further sex act, as well as performing a solo sex act in the child's presence.

Knight sexually assaulted a second child when he touched them inappropriately and induced them to touch him sexually when they were aged between four and seven.

The attacks all took place when Knight was aged between 16 and 21 at an address in North Berwick between August 1990 and May 1996.

The victims did not tell anyone about the assaults but decided to go to the police after opening up to each other as adults in 2021.

Knight, of Castle Street, Dunbar, denied the historic sex attack allegations but was found guilty by a jury following a two-day trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

One victim told the trial that Knight first targeted them in the early 1990s while they were using the bathroom.

They said that Knight entered the toilet, removed his trousers and made them perform a sex act on him.

They told the court that Knight also played strip poker with them where similar acts took place.

The victim described a third incident where Knight sexually assaulted them in a toilet in a public park.

They told the jury that they had hidden the attacks on them, before finding out during a conversation five years ago that the second victim had suffered similar assaults.

When asked by prosecutor Zoe Nugent “would you have told anyone if [the second victim] had not told you?”, they replied: “No, I don’t think so. I would probably have died with it.”

The second victim broke down in the witness box as they described how Knight molested them when they were aged between four and seven.

Following the evidence, the jury took under two hours to return majority guilty verdicts on both charges.

Sheriff Gillian Sharp placed Knight on the sex offenders' register and deferred sentence for the preparation of a social work report and a restriction of liberty order assessment to next month.

Knight was found guilty of using lewd, indecent or libidinous practices and behaviour towards a child aged between nine and 13 on various occasions between August 1990 and August 1994. 

He was also found to have used lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards a second child aged between four and seven between May 1992 and May 1996.