November 2012

Man jailed for sex attacks on three youngsters in town 30 years ago

A FORMER Skelmersdale man was jailed for 16 years today for serious sexual attacks on three young girls more than 30 years ago.

Ex-RAF engineer Robert Morton denied all the allegations against him, but a jury convicted him of 17 offences including repeatedly raping one of the youngsters beginning when she was just four-years-old.

A judge told 54-year-old Morton that the offences “showed a picture of quite exceptional depravity.”

Judge Brian Lewis told Morton, who showed no emotion, that his denials meant that his victims had the ordeal of having to give evidence in a courtroom full of strangers only to be accused of lying.

“The blight you imposed on their childhood was still plain to see as they gave their evidence decades later,” he said.

Morton, of Chirnside, Duns, Berwickshire, had been found guilty of seven specimen rape offences ending when the girl was 12; eight offences of indecent assault and gross indecency on another girl when she was aged 11 – 13 and two specific offences of indecently assaulting the other girl when she was aged between nine and 12.

The offences, which occurred in Skelmersdale, came to light in April this year when one of his victims revealed some details during a counselling session. The police were notified and inquiries led to the other victims being traced.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that in the intervening years Morton had had an unblemished career with the RAF as an electrical engineer and later with BAE Systems in Lancashire.

Gerald Jones, defending, said that some of the offences could be described as Morton’s “teenage sexual experimentation” and the victims had not been threatened.

He is a father of two sons and has no previous convictions.

Morton was ordered to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for life.