The victim of an infamous Edinburgh paedophile ring has spoken for the first time about the damage caused to teenagers groomed to sell sex.
The man, in his fifties, was one of 11 underage youths discovered in a police probe into the Magic Circle paedophile ring which exploited teen boys in the early 90s.
Operation Planet was the name of the police probe into high-level professionals involved in the horrific abuse. Of those professionals, a lawyer, senior journalist, primary teacher and supermarket manager faced a combined 57 charges.
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As the Record reports, an adult sex worker who recruited the youths for his clients was jailed for four years but several men who paid for the boys for sex walked free - one after a not proven verdict while the others never faced trial.
Of the 11 underage sex workers, five have since died. The youngest pair, who were 15 and 16 at the time charges were brought, died in their 20s, one by suicide and the other overdosed on drugs.
However, one surviving victim, speaking on a BBC podcast, claims the accused men 'got away with it' and had caused untold damage.
The victim said: "It was a really difficult time for me. I can see clear as day they were taking advantage. I can see grooming. I thought it was fine then but it really wasn't."
The Magic Circle Affair was named because high-profile sex crime investigations, including Planet, seemed to vanish from the justice system,
A now retired detective, Roger Orr, was ordered by Lothian and Borders Police to look into the matter and he recommended a probe. The report was leaked to the media after the force hierarchy feared a political backlash.
William Nimmo Smith QC investigated the matter and in 1993 gave the Scottish legal profession a clean bill of health, with the exception of one famous QC, Robert Henderson.
He claimed to have a list of prominent figures in the law, including judges, who were secretly gay and implied had had the power to end their careers. Ex-prosecutor John Watt QC, now 73, acted alongside Henderson to defend some of the accused Magic Circle cases.
However, Watt was jailed for historic child sex offences. One of his victims, Henderson's daughter Susie, 56, waived her right to anonymity and believes her dad orchestrated the Magic Circle affair as a smokescreen to cover up a paedophile ring.
Susie has previously identified several senior lawyers among her dad's friends who were allowed by him to sexually abuse her.
He also raped her repeatedly during her childhood. Susie's father, and most her her abusers are now dead but after reporting her abuse in 2014, a police operation led to Watt's extradition from the US.
He was convicted and jailed for 10 years for raping Susie and a boy of 10, and abusing two other children.
Susie said last night: "Most of my abusers are dead but there is still one powerful man living and free, reputation intact."
Shiny Bob: The Devil's Advocate is on BBC Sounds.
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