August 2022 Further jail time for Moffat children’s home abuser One of Scotland’s worst children’s home abusers has been jailed again after more victims bravely came forward. Peter Harley subjected two boys to horror ordeals between 1977 and 1982. The now 77 year-old was at the time in charge of the then Merkland Children’s Home in Moffat. Harley was locked up for 15 years in 1996 for sexually abusing 16 boys there. Two more victims later reported their ordeals resulting in the pensioner being hauled back into the dock. He was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on Wednesday. Harley was previously convicted after a trial in Edinburgh of two charges of lewd and libidinous behaviour as well as indecent assault to injury. Judge Michael O’Grady QC said what the pervert had done was a “cruel and unspeakable breach of trust”. Harley, latterly of Cardiff in Wales, was sentenced to three years. 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. He was jailed for 15 years in 1996 after admitting 17 charges of sexually abusing and assaulting young boys. A judge in that case heard how one victim took his own life and another drank himself to death. In December 2000 he received a further sentence of eight years at Cardiff Crown Court for abusing seven young males from Dumfries and Galloway who he had taken on holiday with him to Wales. July 2022 Paedophile pensioner jailed over ‘wicked and unspeakable’ abuse at children’s home 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. February 2010 Merkland victims misery Victims of a sex abuse scandal at a council-run children’s home have had their benfits stopped after being paid £20,000 in compensation. One Dumfries mum who was routinely abused by paedophile Peter Harley at Merkland Care Home in Moffat told the Standard she won’t even claim the cash until she knows how it will affect her benefits. She said: “We had to fight hard for an apology and compensation for what we were put through at Merkland, but I’m totally depressed over the whole thing. “Most folk who were at Merkland are on the dole and for benefits to be stopped is like a kick in the teeth. “We thought it was great at first that we’d be getting the money but it’s actually scary. We’ve never been given any support or guidance on how to deal with it and I’ve shed a lot of tears over this. “I thought the money would pay for my funeral some day but I’ve been to see solicitors who told me Income Support will make me live on it. After everything we went through, it seems so unfair and feels like the council has won again.” Residents of Merkland were abused by officer in charge Peter Harley, from 1977 until 1982. He was jailed for 15 years in 1996 after admitting 17 charges of sexually abusing and assaulting young boys. In December 2000 he received a further sentence of eight years at Cardiff Crown Court for abusing seven young males from Dumfries and Galloway who he had taken on holiday with him to Wales. Harley was released from prison in 2006 after serving only 10 years of his sentence and is now living in the Cardiff area, where he remains on the national Sex Offenders’ Register. Merkland victims were issued an apology and £20,000 in compensation last year by the council after a series of legal failings prevented any of the victims from receiving compensation from the council’s insurers in 2003, when their claims were dismissed as time-barred. One Dumfries man has even fled the town after being hounded by drug users and prostitutes and says the cash has brought him nothing but misery. He said: “I’ve had enough of people trying to get cash out of me. I wish I’d never been given the compensation because it’s been more of a hindrance than a help. “My benefits have been stopped and it feels like we’ve been given something in one hand and had it taken away in another. What was the point in getting it if we can’t use it to make our lives better? The quicker I spend it, the better.”