Former advocate found guilty of sexually assaulting boys

Mark Strachan, 64, sexually touched the two teenage boys between 1999 and 2001 at two addresses in Aberdeen.

He targeted them while acting as their family’s lawyer. Mr Strachan, who had previously been jailed for fraud, was warned he faces a return to prison when he is sentenced next month.

Sheriff Ian Wallace, at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, praised the courage of the victims and said to Strachan: “You used the trust placed in you as an authority figure to sexually abuse them.”

Strachan, who wrote a legal textbook on sexual offending in 2015, undertook “insidious abuse” against the two boys. One of the victims, now 37, told the The Press and Journal it had been a “long, hard journey”.

“The years of hardship of not understanding what happened were difficult,” he said.

“But eventually being able to come forward and get that closure for myself and my brother – it’s an overwhelming sensation. It’s still upsetting, but in a good way, because I know I’ve done the right thing in the end.”

Sheriff Wallace said: “You have been convicted of serious sexual offences against two children. In these offences, you abused your position as a solicitor and this is the second conviction that relates to you abusing that position.”