The co-owner of two Perthshire hotels who preyed on female members of staff has been jailed for 18 months.
Gary Adam – a former British Army sergeant – “used his power” to intimidate and sexually assault two women, a teenager working as a waitress and a 23-year-old bar worker.
The incidents happened at the Waverley Hotel and the Crags Hotel, both co-owned by Adam, and opposite each other in the main street of the tourist town of Callander, Perthshire.
First victim attacked in office
Falkirk Sheriff Court heard the younger victim had been working for Adam for only a week when he made a pass at her while she was in another local pub playing pool.
She told him she “didn’t want to lose her job – or have sex with him”.
Within hours, however, he asked her into the office at the Waverley Hotel on the “ruse” that she needed a new uniform T-shirt, pushed her against a wall, put his hand “quite tightly” round her neck, kissed her forcibly on the lips and tried to put his hand down the front of her jeans.
“Growling or grunting” in her ear, he was said to have told her that he would “snap her like a twig”.
Later that night Adam sexually assaulted her again, “touching her bum” in a darkened hotel kitchen as she bent over to get cutlery.
She quit soon after the 2019 incidents.
Second victim assaulted in cupboard
The court heard Adam sexually assaulted the 23-year-old repeatedly while she was working at the Crags Hotel.
He followed her into a walk-in cupboard where she was fetching juice, pulled the door so it locked behind them, then pinned her “forcibly” against the wall with two hands on her shoulders and tried to kiss her.
She said she was “frozen” and “scared” but suddenly a customer called from the bar and she was able to leave.
Later Adam, who had been drinking with friends, returned alone and “a bit more drunk” and asked her for the key to one of the hotel bedrooms.
He then texted a demand that she deliver a beer to the bedroom and he opened the door, grabbed her wrist, “dragged” her in, pushed her onto the bed, held her arms above her head and tried to kiss her.
She said she “just kept saying no” and eventually he told her to go back to the bar but refused to give her back her phone.
When he returned it later, the text message asking her to take beer to his room had been deleted.
Accused pounced in car
The court heard Adam later told the woman “it would never happen again” but three weeks later, after finishing her shift at the Crags she went over to the Waverley to see some friends and Adam approached and asked her for a lift back to his home on the outskirts of Callander.
She thought it would be awkward if she refused, but on the short drive he immediately asked her if she would stay with him in one of the hotel rooms.
When she turned him down, he demanded she stop and before she had even had a chance to turn off the engine he climbed over, sat on top of her, forced her head back, forcibly kissed her, and put his hand inside her underwear.
“Scared and disgusted”, the woman managed to call a random number on her phone, and when Adam realised, he stopped and asked to be driven the rest of the way home.
After a three-day trial in February, the jury found father-of-one Adam guilty of five charges of sexual assault.
No emotion shown on sentencing
Defence advocate Wendy Hay said Adam, a soldier for 13 years before moving into civvy street in the rail and then hotel industries, was “ashamed of his behaviour”.
She said: “It’s quite clear he needs to work on his attitude towards women.”
Sheriff Christopher Shead described Adam’s offences and “grave”.
Adam stood to attention in the dock as sentence was passed and showed no emotion as he was led downstairs to the cells.
Prosecutor Cheryl Clark said Adam had perpetrated “a pattern of systematic abuse against the two young women, engineered situations to be alone with them, and used fear, intimidation, physical strength, and his powerful role as their employer to manipulate the situation”.
