 Petch was jailed for a minimum of 12 years |
A man who was part of a paedophile gang in Edinburgh has been sentenced to life imprisonment for raping two girls in the 1990s. Morris Petch, 50, who was convicted in May of the crimes, was told he would serve a minimum of 12 years in jail.
He was sentenced on Friday at the High Court in Edinburgh.
At court, Lord Malcolm described the offences as "grave and disgraceful" and said Petch was a "serious risk to the public".
Petch was part of a paedophile gang which started abusing the two girls when they were less than 10-years-old.
A jury found him guilty of forcing Dana Fowley, now 27, (who waived her right to anonymity) and another youngster, now 25, to have sex at his home in the Muirhouse area of Edinburgh over 17 years ago.
Speaking outside the court, Ms Fowley said she was pleased the case was over and pleased with the sentence.
Petch had denied rape but a jury found him guilty in May.
They also convicted him of raping Ms Fowley and forcing her to perform sex attacks on other occasions at addresses in the Muirhouse area of the city.
Lord Malcolm told him on Friday: "It is plain from the assessment carried out on you that you have no remorse for them, nor for the damage you have caused for your victims.
"Indeed you are in denial of your crimes and your inability to control your deviant desires.
"It is clear from the material now available to the court you are a serious risk to the public.
"Nothing has been said on your behalf - no doubt because there is nothing that can be said."
'Extraordinary' abuse
Ms Fowley's mother, Caroline Dunsmore, 43, was sentenced in June to 12 years in prison for her part in the gang rape of her young daughter and another girl.
John O'Flaherty, 50, was earlier jailed for 13 years.
Petch was a friend of William King, who had orchestrated the abuse of the youngsters. He had been married to Dunsmore, but died in 1995.
Advocate depute Iain McSporran, prosecuting, described how - from a very early age - Ms Fowley fell victim to the paedophile ring.
Being raped became "a way of life" he said, and the abuse was "extraordinary".
Dunsmore and O'Flaherty had earlier admitted abuse of Ms Fowley in a caravan in Perthshire on a single night between April 1990 and June 1990 and to years of earlier sexual abuse and rape of the same girl at a house in Edinburgh when she was as young as six.
Dunsmore went on to give evidence against Petch. The court heard that both girls had contemplated suicide.
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You are in denial of your crimes and your inability to control your deviant desires
