Rapist jailed for 12 years for abuse of four underage girls

A rapist who abused four young girls has been jailed for 12 years, after being confronted by vigilantes on his doorstep.

Brian Stobie, 70, was convicted of a series of offences against the girls – one under 16 and three under 12-years-old – in Edinburgh between 1990 and 2007.

The former bus driver was later caught in a sting by vigilantes in 2022, when he attempted to contact underage girls online but instead spoke to adults.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Judge Alison Stirling told Stobie he would be jailed for the “serious nature of your offending”.

Stobie, of Duke Street in Leith, had denied eight charges of abusing the girls.

But a trial heard how he made his victims sit on his knee and molested them during visits to a flat. He also exposed himself and raped one of the girls.

Advocate depute Martin Crawford, prosecuting, said: “These were experiences that happened when they were children, in circumstances which were outwith their control.”

The court heard that one woman was left struggling with issues of trust and maintaining intimate relationships and had avoided the area where her abuser lived.

Defence counsel Andrew Crosbie said that Stobie was also the subject of an online vigilante “sting”, when he tried to obtain naked pictures from young girls.

He was, in fact, speaking to adults who live-streamed a confrontation with him at his home in August 2022.

Stobie admitted a four charges of attempting to communicate indecently with underage girls.

Mr Crosbie said: “He accepts that he has been convicted of offences of real gravity”.

Stobie was jailed for 12 years and nine months and put on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

He was also given a non-harassment order prohibiting him approaching or contacting his four victims.