Undertaker and church organist jailed for child abuse

Robert Brown, church organist and former undertaker, has been jailed for four years for carrying out sex acts on minors and exposing them to pornographic material.

According to the Daily Record, Brown was also formerly an area manager for Dignity Caring Funeral Services and was one of the first Scots to be receive a ­Repatriation Medal at a ceremony in Perth in 2004.  He was recognised for his part in bringing home the bodies of 14 RAF Kinloss service personnel who died in the RAF Nimrod crash in Afghanistan.

Brown, aged 64, carried out the sexual abuse acts over a 13-year period and was removed from his role as a church organist at the Craigie Parish Church in Perth once the allegations were made public.

He targeted two young boys between 1991 and 2004. One of his victims was aged just seven when the abuse began, the other was aged 10.

The court heard that when Brown was confronted by one of the boys about being a paedophile he replied: “Yes. I suppose I am.”

He admitted two charges of indecent behaviour and two of indecent assault at the High Court in Edinburgh on 20 March.

Brown was sentenced to four years in jail but it would have been six if it weren’t for his guilty plea. He will also be on the sex offender’s register indefinitely.

Lord Burns told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: “No doubt you are aware that if you offend again during that period you will be subject to recall to prison for the whole of the three-year period.”

Defence counsel Ronnie Renucci said: “He appreciates nothing can excuse his conduct. He accepts he has no one to blame but himself. He has a problem and he accepts that it is a problem that requires to be addressed. He does accept that ultimately it about sexual gratification.

“For that he is deeply ashamed and embarrassed.”