May 2018 Former Shetland councillor jailed for sex assaults A former councillor and well-known Shetland businessman found guilty of sexually assaulting two girls has been jailed for 18 months. Robert Henderson, 74, of Yell, had denied seven charges. A charge that he raped a woman – now in her 60s – twice in 1990 on the island of Yell was found not proven by a jury on a majority verdict. However, he was found guilty of sexual assault charges involving two girls, dating back to the 1970s. The trial at the High Court in Aberdeen heard the abuse began when one of the girls was 11. The first offender and former independent councillor was also found guilty of inappropriately touching two women in the early 1990s. Sentencing Henderson at the High Court in Glasgow, judge Lord Kinclaven told Henderson the most serious charge of rape had been found not proven but the remaining charges were serious. He said: “I’m satisfied that there is no alternative to a custodial sentence. “The offences cover a significant period of time and the court requires to mark the seriousness of your offending.” Henderson was placed on the sex offenders register.