Nursery manager guilty of child rape & sexual abuse

A former nursery manager has been found guilty of raping a three-year-old boy and sexually abusing a girl, at the High Court in Glasgow today.

Mark Maclennan, aged 30 from Bath, was employed at a Lochaber nursery when he raped a three-year-old between August 2012 and May 2013. He was also found guilty of possessing child abuse images but separate charges of sexually abusing two other children at the nursery were not proven.

The jury of nine women and six men saw video interviews with the three young children and heard evidence from their mothers who all said Maclennan abused the children.

The jury also found Maclennan guilty of sexually abusing a girl at drama rehearsals held in Stirling, Dunfermline and at her home in Dunblane between October 2007 and July 2010. The offences took place when the girl was aged between 12 and 15 and Maclennan was employed as a chaperone for a theatre company.

He was also found guilty of storing thousands of images of child abuse on a computer he had at the nursery and a laptop at his home in Stirling.

In court, Judge John Morris QC told Maclennan: “Given what you have been convicted of a prison sentence is almost inevitable.”

Judge Morris remanded Maclennan in custody and deferred sentence until February 27 for background reports.