A Linwood man has been jailed for three-and-a-half years after forcing a young girl to perform a sex act on another man for money paid to him.
Paul Cochrane, 51, also got the child – who was aged nine or 10 – to carry out sex acts on him when he was a teenager.
A judge told Cochrane that, given the nature of the offences, there was no alternative but to impose a significant prison sentence on him.
Judge Simon Collins KC said: “All the offences took place when you were a child or a young adult.”
The judge said at the High Court in Edinburgh that he took into account the fact the crimes took place more than 30 years ago and added: “Your risk of reoffending is low.”
Cochrane, formerly of Ellon Drive, Linwood, was earlier convicted of three charges of indecent behaviour following a trial at which he had denied the offences.
The first two offences occurred between October 1984 and October 1986 at a house in Paisley and involved the abuse of the girl.
On two occasions, he forced the girl to perform a sex act on him and on a single occasion he forced her to perform a sex act on another male in exchange for money.
Cochrane was aged 13 to 15 at the time of the sex offending against the girl.
The third offence occurred between August 1988 and October 1989 at an address in Paisley when Cochrane exposed himself to a five-year-old boy.
Defence solicitor advocate Robert Mitchell said that the offences involving the girl were “very serious charges”.
But he said Cochrane was now “a very different person” from the one who had committed the historical abuse.
He said Cochrane was “quite well known” in Paisley and had worked in the hospitality sector.
Mr Mitchell said Cochrane had no record for similar offending and a lack of convictions over the last two decades.
“These matters on this indictment are extremely unusual in this man’s history,” he told the court.
He asked the judge to take into account that the abuse against the girl was committed when Cochrane was of “a very young age”.
Cochrane, who followed the sentencing proceedings via a televised link to Low Moss jail, was told that he would be put on the sex offenders’ register for an indefinite period.
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