A DEMENTIA sufferer has been jailed for five years for sex crimes dating back a half a century despite being unable to follow court proceedings.

Pensioner Charles Murphy was previously convicted, after a trial, of serious, violent crimes including a threat to throw acid in a woman’s face. But forensic psychiatrists have now said he could not understand the sentencing process.

A judge told Murphy, 78, at the High Court in Edinburgh: “Sentencing you is a difficult matter because three forensic psychiatrists have deemed you incapable of understanding the sentencing process.” However, Lady Scott said she could not go against the verdict returned by a jury at the High Court in Glasgow earlier this year.

The judge pointed out he had been found guilty of serious, historical offences, including rape and assault.

Murphy, formerly of Culloden Street, Dennistoun, in Glasgow, was convicted of raping a woman in the back court of a tenement in the city between January 1967 and December 1969. During another incident he held a knife against his victim’s throat and threatened to throw acid on her face.