MAN SENTENCED FOR RAPE
A former teacher from Westgate, who became disgraced after sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, has received a prison sentence of five years and six months.David Briggs, aged 29 and father to one child, committed the rape when he was just 17 years old.
In addition to this, Briggs sexually abused a young boy over a span of four years, when the boy was between nine and 13 years old.
The victim of Briggs’s sexual assault, now a 26-year-old woman, told the court that the incident took place at a residence in Edinburgh.
She said: "I was just turned 15 and I thought if I tell anyone about this my life is over." Two years ago she finally contacted a children's charity and the police became involved.
She said: "At no point did I want to tell anyone about what happened to me.
I just wanted to make sure other people were safe." The woman said then decided to tell her mother in 2016 and wrote out a message headed "telling mum", in which she revealed that she was sexually abused.
The woman said: "She told me straight up 'I believe you.
What other reason would you have for saying this other than it must be true'." He was also convicted of abusing a boy from the age of eight by carrying out sex acts on him at addresses in Edinburgh and at Millport on the isle of Cumbrae between January 2002 and 2006.
The court heard that he was working as a primary teacher in England when the offences came to light.
According to his Linked In profile, he was once a teacher at Cliftonville Primary School.
Briggs denied the offences and claimed they never happened.
Lord Woolman placed Briggs on the sex offenders' register.
