An Arbroath murderer once dubbed one of Scotland’s most violent prisoners wept in the dock after he was cleared of molesting a ten-year-old girl.
Adam Gallagher was cleared of indecently sexually assaulting the youngster as she slept in a Montrose house in 2005.
He had appeared on trial at the High Court Dundee, where his case was found to be not proven by majority jury.
As the verdict was read out Gallagher sobbed, before he was led back to the cells.
The 34-year-old made Scottish legal history in 2017 after becoming the first prisoner to be sentenced via videolink, having been dubbed “too dangerous” to bring to court.
Such was Gallagher’s history, at the conclusion of the trial in Dundee on Friday, court staff asked those sitting in the public benches to move to the back of the room, while extra police flanked the dock before the verdict was read out.
A jury acquitted him of a single charge which alleged he entered the girl’s bedroom while she was asleep, pinned her down and subjected her to a sex attack in March or April 2005 — when Gallagher was 17.
He had been cleared of two additional charges earlier in the trial.
History of violence
Gallagher is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of Czech Marek Smrz in July 2005.
He plunged a steak knife into the young fruit-picker’s heart after he and his then-girlfriend found and robbed the 21-year-old while he was slumped in the street in Arbroath.
The former waiter had only arrived in Scotland three-months earlier and had been working at East Seaton farm.
Doctors explained Mr Smrz could not have survived the violent attack, even if it had been committed “in a hospital car park”.
In 2017 Gallagher was sentenced to almost a year in jail after causing £4,000 worth of damage to his cell in Perth Prison.
He has also been found guilty of assault, vandalism and fire-raising and numerous instances in which he has destroyed his cell, costing the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds, since being sent to prison.
Not proven — is evidence weighted against Scotland’s 3-verdict justice system?
