Moffat children's home abuser given further jail term

A former care home manager jailed for sexual abuse has been given a further prison term.

Peter Harley, 77, was sentenced to 15 years in 1996 for abusing 16 boys at the Merkland Home in Moffat.

Two more victims came forward and he was convicted last month of two charges of lewd and libidinous behaviour and indecent assault.

At the High Court in Glasgow, he was jailed for three years for the offences committed between 1977 and 1982.

Judge Michael O'Grady QC said what Harley had done was a "cruel and unspeakable breach of trust".

His lawyer had questioned if the offences had been part of the 1996 case whether the sentence would have been more than 15 years.

However, Mr O'Grady said he had considered that, but added: "I take the view that you deserve punishment.

"These little boys, as they were then, and damaged men, they are now, deserve a measure of justice and retribution."

Compensation

Harley, latterly of Cardiff, was jailed at the High Court in Glasgow following a previous trial in Edinburgh.

It had heard how one boy who had tried to escape from the home and been caught was later given a "leathering" for trying to leave.

Harley was initially jailed for abuse at Merkland in 1996 and was later sentenced to eight years in 2000 in Cardiff for abuse at an approved school in South Wales.

In 2009, Dumfries and Galloway Council agreed to make goodwill compensation payments to those affected by what happened to them.

Ian Duguid QC, defending, said Harley continued to deny the latest crimes.

He said he insisted that he knew all the other boys he was guilty of abusing, but had claimed not to remember the final two.