SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Lady Poole said:

"James John Dorans, you were convicted by the jury at Edinburgh High Court on 14 August 2025 of serious offences of child abuse.  The crimes of which you were found guilty included rape, lewd and libidinous behaviour, sexual assault and indecent communications.

Your first victim was a 9 year old girl staying over in your house.  The jury found you sexually abused her on two occasions in the middle of the night when you were about 26.  Your second victim was a vulnerable 13 year old.  You were about 29 when you started to abuse her.  The jury found you raped her on numerous occasions over the next 4 years, as well as attempting to induce her to engage in bestiality.  Your third victim was also 13 years old when you sexually assaulted her and communicated indecently with her, at a time when you were 49 years old. 

The type of offending of which the jury convicted you causes long term harm to victims. It was clear from the evidence of your victims in court that what you did upset and harmed them.  Victim impact statements from all three victims confirm the serious and continuing effects on their lives of what you did.  You appear to have been focussed on your own sexual gratification, and not on the wellbeing of girls who were children when you abused them, who should have been able to trust you.

You have a record of previous convictions which does you no credit.  It contains offending over a 20 year period, and convictions for 10 offences.  The first offence was having unlawful sexual intercourse with an underage girl, and the second an offence involving indecent communications.  Your record also includes an offence of attempting to pervert the course of justice, bail breaches, assaults, and offences aggravated by domestic abuse.  The offending was all dealt with at sheriff court level with non custodial disposals, and you have not offended since 2014.

I have taken into account the criminal justice social work report with a risk assessment that I ordered. Specific inquiry was made by the assessor about your health conditions and their management in prison.  A care plan was produced by the prison service, showing your needs can be met in that environment.   You do not present as significantly vulnerable in a prison environment.  The assessor’s view was that the offences were predatory in nature, often involving planning.  The assessor considered that you pose a very significant risk to teenage female children, with offending of the nature you have been convicted causing immediate physical harm and longer term psychological harm. An extended sentence was recommended.   

I have taken into account everything said on your behalf in mitigation.  The offences in the present case occurred some time ago.  The first offence occurred in about 1995, with the most serious offending ending in 2003, although you were also convicted of an offence committed in 2018.  You had a difficult upbringing and report yourself having been the victim of abuse, both at the hands of family members but also when you were in residential accommodation.  You are now 56, and you are not in good health.  You have not worked for some time.  You were in a wheelchair throughout the trial.  In your evidence you said you have multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia and various other medical conditions, and you reported depression and anxiety to the social worker preparing the criminal justice social work report.  Inquiries with your GP reveal a formal diagnosis only for one of these conditions, fibromyalgia, but I accept you have health problems.  You have been married on various occasions, currently to a woman over 25 years younger than you, to whom you had been married for 8 years at the time of trial. You have a role in caring for your four children, the youngest of whom is 1 year old. 

Our law aims to protect children from abuse by older men.  You took advantage of girls considerably younger than you, who should have been safe from your attentions.  Instead you abused them.  Given that your previous conviction for underage sex predated the offending in this case, you knew what you were doing was criminal. Although you have not previously been sentenced to imprisonment or detention, given the nature and seriousness of the crimes of which you have been convicted, no method of dealing with you other than custody is appropriate.

I impose a cumulo extended sentence in respect of all of the charges of 13 years.  I have imposed an extended sentence because I do not consider ordinary conditions of licence on release will be sufficient to protect the public from serious harm from you.  The custodial part of that sentence is 10 years.  That will be followed by an extension period of 3 years in the community when you will be on licence and under supervision, on conditions fixed by the Scottish Ministers. If you fail to comply with the conditions, the licence may be revoked and you may be returned to custody; and you may also be sentenced for an offence committed while on licence.  Had I been sentencing the offences against different complainers separately, I would have imposed custodial sentences of 3 years on charge 1, 9 years cumulo on charges 2 and 3, and 9 months on charge 4, all to be served consecutively.  Having regard to the totality principle and the effect of the extension period, I have instead imposed a cumulo custodial part of 10 years.

Your sentence will be backdated to 14 August 2025 when you were first remanded in custody.

As a result of that sentence you are subject to the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for an indefinite period. Your name has been given to the Scottish Ministers for the purposes of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups legislation.  You are also subject to the non-harassment orders I granted at the time you were convicted."