Archibald Thorburn, 77, was jailed at the High Court in Edinburgh after jurors returned verdicts on a total of 14 charges. The abuse took place in the Scottish capital between July 1963 and December 1992.
Judge Michael O'Grady KC told Thorburn: "I have watched up closely throughout these proceedings and as you gave your own untruthful account. And even in the face of the most distressing evidence, you have shown not a flicker of emotion, not a hint of regret, only an unconcealed contempt for the witnesses."
The judge added: "The damage you have done is incalculable. It is clearly damage which lives on and always will in the shadow you have cast over their lives. You stole their childhoods and blighted their futures."
Thorburn's abuse included forcing a boy to run around a garden with a rope around his neck while carrying tins filled with concrete. He also hit the child with a spirit level and sexually assaulted him. The victim, now 69, said Thorburn told him to carry out a sex act on him. He said: “I was made to clean it up.” He said he could not tell anyone and said it was “our secret”. He said of Thorburn: “I was scared of him from day one. He had a temper on him. He would just lash out.”
Thorburn subjected other children to violent physical assaults. He shaved a nine-year-old girl's hair and assaulted her with a broom handle. He forced another eight-year-old girl to take scalding hot and freezing cold baths as punishment, made her stare at a photograph for hours, and hid her puppies. During the 1970s, he assaulted a 13-year-old boy and threatened him with a hot poker. He also struck his own father repeatedly between 1965 and 1985.
Thorburn denied any wrongdoing during the trial, describing the allegations as “horrible”. But the jury returned verdicts of guilt. Defence advocate Brian McConnachie KC told the court that since being remanded Thorburn was being investigated for bowel cancer and was finding life in custody difficult. Judge O’Grady said he was bound to have regard to Thorburn’s age and lack of previous offending, but that the sentence must be “anchored in the appalling circumstances of these offences and your cruel and wicked conduct.”