Guilty verdict on wood sex attack

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A teenager has been found guilty of carrying out sex acts on an eight-year-old boy in a woodland in the Borders.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard Darren McIntosh stripped and blindfolded the boy before assaulting him in Galashiels on 23 August 2007.

The 17-year-old had denied the charges against him, blaming a friend instead.

But the court was told DNA found on the boy's t-shirt and boxer shorts matched McIntosh. He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced next month.

The court heard how the boy, now aged nine, and his friends were approached by two teenagers - one in a hooded top and the other in a Rangers top who spoke to them.

The boy, who cannot be named, gave evidence by CCTV. He told the court what McIntosh had said to him: "He said: 'Do you want to hear a secret?'

"Then he took me, like, to the woods and I said: 'You can tell me now'

"He said: 'Your friends might be following us'. So we walked on to the woods."

The boy said the teenager in the Rangers top suggested building a gang hut then told him to take his clothes off.

When he refused, he was stripped of his tracksuit trousers, t-shirt, boxer shorts and socks.

The boy told the court: "He said lie down - I lied down then he blindfolded me."

"Like, he blindfolded me with my clothes, with my top. He, like, put it over my head.

"I was crying."

He then told the court how the older boy had carried out sex acts on him.

"Wicked lie"

The child added that as he lay naked and blindfolded he had heard his stepfather shouting his name as he searched the area.

The alarm had been raised by a friend with a mobile phone.

Later the nine-year-old said he got dressed and the older boy took him to a nearby shop.

It was there that his stepfather chased the youth who had taken him to the woods.

Defence QC Neil Murray told the boy he was not doubting that someone did "bad things" to him in the wood, but suggested it as a case of mistaken identity.

Advocate depute Peter Ferguson QC, speaking to the jury, said McIntosh had told a "mischievous wicked lie" when he tired to suggest someone else had committed the offence.

McIntosh had denied the charges of abduction "with intent to commit a sexual offence" and indecent behaviour but did not give evidence at his trial.

After the verdicts, judge Roger Craik QC called for background reports to be carried out.