Paedo ring QC got away with abuse for half a century but left us serving a life sentence

Former prosecutor who preyed on young children is jailed for 10 years

- MARCELLO MEGA

EXCLUSIVE ENDURING PAIN OF A SEX FIEND'S VICTIM

A VICTIM of pervert lawyer John Watt who was jailed for 10 years yesterday over sex crimes against four children - says she hopes he dies behind bars.

His conviction came after a major police investigation into claims of an elite paedophile ring in Edinburgh.

The woman, who sparked the probe into Watt and other senior legal figures in the Scottish capital, spoke last night of her huge relief that justice had finally been done.

Susie Henderson, 55, who has waived her right to anonymity to share her story, aped by Watt when she was aged between seven and 12.

Told about the sentence, she said: "It's better than I expected - and I hope he never has another day of freedom in his life. He got away with it for half a century but left us serving a life sentence."

Susie is the daughter of the late QC Robert Henderson, who died in 2012. It was her report to police about abuse claims against her father that initiated the eight-year investigation into the sexual abuse of children by prominent Scots that led to Watt's arrest and conviction.

Susie contacted the police in 2000 to report her father, and a number of colleagues at the Scottish Bar, over operating a paedophile ring but was too scared to take the case further.

She went back to talk to police again in 2014.

By that time, her father and most of her other abusers - who included the former Solicitor General Nicholas Fairbairn QC, a minister in Margaret Thatcher's Tory Government - were dead.

She told officers that her father sexually abused her from a very young age and allowed many of his close friends and colleagues, including QC Watt, to do the same.

Watt, who acted as a criminal defence counsel and served as a prosecutor, preyed on three girls and one boy in offences committed over a 14-year period.