AN “odious” pervert who subjected two girls to months of sexual abuse has had his jail sentence cut by four years.

William Aitken, 42, of Keir Hardie Terrace, was sentenced in April at the High Court in Edinburgh for his abuse of the young girls, who were aged 13 and 14 at the time.

The paedophile raped and sexually assaulted one of the youngsters between February 2008 and March 2010, and the other between September 2009 and June 2010, at various addresses in Fife.

He was considered as “being likely to reoffend” and jailed for 16 years, and was also put on the sex offenders' register for life.

Trial judge Lady Wolffe had called his crimes “extremely serious”, adding, “They all involved calculated and predatory sexual abuse for your own sexual gratification of two vulnerable girls in their early teens.

“Sexual crimes involving children are particularly odious. Such abuse is not acceptable in a modern society and it is the responsibility of the court to reflect that understanding.”

However, law lords have now reduced the sentence to 12 years following Aitken's appeal.

In the judgement, Lord Bracadale said Lady Wolffe had not taken into account the “significant and unexplained delay” in bringing Aitken to trial after he was charged in September 2010.

He added, “We consider that in this case, in addition to the issue of delay, the cumulative effect of the consecutive sentences has produced an overall sentence which is excessive, particularly in the case of a first offender.”