The paedophile manager of a children's home was facing a lengthy jail sentence today after subjecting vulnerable boys in care to "unspeakable" cruelty. Peter Harley, 77, preyed on the children at a now-closed local authority institution in Moffat, in Dumfriesshire.
Harley has already been jailed for 15 years in 1996 after admitting sexually abusing 16 boys at Merkland Childrens Home which he ran for several years. He was later imprisoned for a further six years for further offences following another conviction at Cardiff Crown Court.
After his latest conviction at the High Court in Edinburgh a judge told him: "You are a thoroughly wicked individual." Judge Michael O'Grady QC said: "It is to state the obvious perhaps, but you were in a position of the greatest trust."
The judge said he had taken advantage of it in the most callous fashion to abuse two children he knew to be defenceless and vulnerable. The judge said his cruelty was unspeakable and he had led "a virtual lifetime of depravity preying on vulnerable children".
Mr O'Grady pointed out that he had two previous convictions relating to the abuse of children in children's homes in which he was working. He deferred sentence on Harley for the preparation of a report but told him he faced "a significant sentence of imprisonment".
Harley, of Aberteifi Crescent, Cardiff, had denied a series of offences during his latest trial but was found guilty of two charges of indecent conduct towards two boys and the indecent assault of one of the victims. The abuse took place at the Merkland home between 1977 and 1982.
One boy was aged 12 when he became a target for the predatory officer in charge of the institution and the other was aged 11. Harley, who was known as 'Pops' by youngsters, later took redundancy when the Merkland home was closed, the court heard.
One of the victims said: "He was the manager. He was the boss.
All the boys called him 'Pop'. They used to call him 'Pops Harley'."
He told the court: "Initially I thought he was a nice bloke, but that changed." He said Harley began touching him during bathtime.
The victim, now aged 56, said he told him to "f--- off" and "leave me alone" but said he was later subjected to a rape attack by the care worker. He said: "I tried to struggle to get away.
The more I struggled the harder he pressed. The pain was unbearable."
The man said that afterwards Harley told him to get washed and threw clean pyjamas on the floor and took the blood-stained ones away. "I was just totally numb and frightened.
I couldn't believe what had happened. I was absolutely petrified and I was in pain," he said. He said he later ran away from the institution and told the court: "I was going to tell my social worker what he was doing to me and everyone else."
The man was asked if there was a catalyst for him fleeing the children's home and said: "I heard people crying. I was shit scared. I didn't want to be there any more."
He said he had started cycling towards Dumfries but Harley chased after him in a car and ran him off the road before taking him back to the children's home and "leathering" him. Harley was placed on the sex offenders' register for an indefinite period.
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