STV NewsA former headmaster has admitted subjecting a girl to a catalogue of sexual abuse and rape for a decade.
Arthur Hutchinson began molesting the victim when she was aged eight in Thailand and continued to control and exploit her when she moved to Scotland to pursue higher education studies.
During some of the abuse he filmed and photographed the girl and put a cloth soaked in lighter fuel on her face, leaving her apparently unconscious.
The 74-year-old exiled the underage girl to relatives in a rural part of her Asian homeland when she told him she did not want to have sex as an underage child.
The High Court in Edinburgh that he was “very controlling” of the victim and although he arranged for her to go to a private school in Thailand he restricted her friends and her activities outside of school.
Advocate depute Richard Goddard QC told the court: “As the complainer’s family were poor and lived in relative poverty she felt a responsibility to obtain an education to provide for herself and her family in the future.”
Hutchinson, who moved to Thailand in 2010, suggested that the teenager should continue her education in the UK and she secured a higher education place last year.
He made her agree to a set of rules including that she did not wear make-up and did not post on social media.
Mr Goddard said: “She did not resist the accused’s advances because she was afraid that he would withdraw financial support from her family and stop her education.”
But after an argument she went to see a counsellor and revealed that she had been sexually abused by Hutchinson since she was eight years old.
The prosecutor said: “She was crying uncontrollably and stated that she did not want to do it anymore but that the accused had threatened to withdraw financial assistance from her family if she did not comply.”
Police were contacted and Hutchinson was arrested and a laptop and other equipment was seized from a flat he was renting.
Cybercrime experts recovered more than 1700 indecent photographs of the victim and a further 198 videos, 129 of which showed him raping her.
On Monday, Hutchinson admitted five charges when he appeared in court via a prison video link.
He pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the girl between December 2010 and May 2013 at a hotel and other properties in Thailand.
He also admitted sexually assaulting and raping the girl between May 2013 and May 2015 in the city of Ubon Ratchathani.
He also admitted sexually assaulting her and raping her in Thailand and Scotland between May 2013 and December last year after administering an intoxicating substance to her. He also admitted sexually assaulting and raping her over the same period when he carried out further sex acts on her.
Hutchinson also pleaded guilty to taking indecent photographs of the victim between September 2014 and January this year in Thailand and Scotland.
Mr Goddard said Hutchinson was a school teacher for more than 40 years and latterly was employed as the headmaster of a secondary school in West Yorkshire, before retiring in 2008.
He then went abroad to live two years later and settled in Thailand, when he began abusing the child victim.
Judge Lord Fairley deferred sentence on Hutchinson for the preparation of a background report, including a risk assessment.
He remanded Hutchinson in jail and placed him on the sex offenders’ register.
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