Vile Edinburgh man burned woman with lighter at Cameron Toll shopping centre

A violent brute forced a child’s head into a pile of vomit and burned a woman with a cigarette lighter during a series of shocking historical abuse attacks.

Martin Fleming made the youngster place their head into the sick and demanded they run up and down a set of stairs while they were unwell at an address in Edinburgh between September 1981 and September 1990.

Fleming, 72, also culpably and recklessly burned a woman with the lighter while at the capital’s Cameron Toll shopping centre on an occasion between May 1985 and December 1989.

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The pensioner, of Camelon, Falkirk, admitted the charges of wilfully ill-treating the child and burning the woman when he appeared in the dock at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday.

Fleming also pleaded guilty to further historical attacks including assaulting a child by repeatedly striking them on the bottom and legs with a belt on an occasion between January and December 1975.

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He also admitted to striking his ex-wife to the head and body, pinning her to sofa and compressing her neck with his hands at a property in Edinburgh between September 1986 and September 1988.

The OAP pleaded guilty to assaulting a further child by placing his hands around their neck and compressing and repeatedly striking them on the body with a wet towel to their injury at homes in the capital between September 1981 and September 1992.

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Fiscal depute Ruaridh Allison told the court a full written narration into the violent events would be prepared for the next calling of the case.

Sheriff Charles Gill agreed to defer sentence for social work reports and a restriction of liberty order assessment to be carried out to next month.