A 74-year-old has admitted raping and sexually assaulting two young girls while in a religious cult.
Derek Lincoln, pled guilty to the crimes - which dated back to 1989 - at Glasgow's High Court yesterday.
He was extradited from France last year on a European arrest warrant for his involvement in the 'Children of God' cult.
Lincoln was arrested by Police Scotland on October 8, 2019, after a five-year international investigation.
He admitted to sexually assaulting two girls, aged nine and 11, between 1989 and 1991.
The 74-year-old is due to be sentenced at a later date.
The 'Children of God' cult, which began in the United States int he late 1960s, operated at sites in Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Edinburgh.
Police commended the bravery of Lincoln's victims for coming forward and reporting his crimes.
Detective sergeant Neil Wilson from Police Scotland’s specialist crime division national rape task force said:
“The arrest of Derek Lincoln followed a five-year complex investigation involving partnership working both nationally and internationally.
“My thoughts continue to remain with the victims and those impacted by Lincoln’s actions over many years. Thanks to the bravery of them coming forward and reporting to us, he will now face the consequences of his actions.
"We remain committed to bringing sexual offenders before the courts and treat all reports of sexual crime with the utmost seriousness. Anyone wishing to report such offences should do so to Police Scotland via 101."
An NSPCC Scotland spokesman said: “Cases such as this show that, however much time has passed, victims of child sexual abuse will be listened to when they speak out, crimes will be investigated and justice can be achieved.
“The impact of such abuse can be profound and long-lasting and it crucial that victims receive all the support they need to help them recover.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article