Child sex predator George Owen faces prison sentence
A man has been remanded in custody after he admitted sexually abused four young children over an 11-year period.
George Owen, 66, attacked the children mainly at properties in Prestwick, South Ayrshire, and Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, between 1971 and 1982.
He was caught in 2012 when a daughter of one of the victims confronted him.
At the High Court in Glasgow, Owen admitted five charges of acting in a lewd and libidinous manner. Sentence was deferred for reports.
Paul Brown, defending, said Owen, of Holytown, North Lanarkshire, had wanted to avoid a trial in order to spare the victims giving evidence.
Judge Lord Turnbull placed Owen on the sex offenders' register and told him: "You have been convicted by your plea of predatory sexual behaviour directed at children and perpetrated over a lengthy period of time."
The court heard that the first victim was only five years old when Owen began attacking her.
He also started abusing an eight-year-old boy around the same time.
A second boy was also targeted - beginning at the age of five. This included a sex attack at a swimming pool cubicle in Ayr.
Owen's final victim was aged between eight and 10 when she was abused.
Prosecutor Bill McVicar told how Owen escaped justice for decades until a daughter of his first victim challenged him about the abuse in late 2012.
Owen then went missing, but police eventually discovered him in Dunoon, Argyll and Bute.
He told officers that his "past was catching up with him" and that he had "needed to get away".