A mum broke down in tears as a notorious Dundee sex offender was cleared of allegations he told her eight-year-old daughter to put a plastic bag over her head.
Paedophile Connor Tait went on trial accused of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner against the schoolgirl while she played at the city’s Hilltown Park on May 30 2021.
The youngster told police she was approached by a man who told her: “How about you put this bag over your head, it’ll get you home.”
The girl’s father said she was left devastated by the alleged remark and still needs all doors and windows locked at her home because she fears “a man is coming to take her away”.
However, the trial collapsed after Tait’s lawyer Billy Somerville successfully argued there was no case against his client.
Sheriff William Wood agreed there was no other witness or evidence to corroborate the young girl’s statement.
“The evidence suggests that something did happen,” he said. “But not what.
“I am unable to find any corroboration in reference to the plastic bag.”
He upheld Mr Somerville’s “no case to answer” submission and told Tait he was acquitted.
The 30-year-old, who was jailed in 2014 for a sex assault on an 11-year-old in Menzieshill, has been remanded since his arrest in 2021.
He is still serving time at HMP Perth for trashing a prison cell.
Playtime interrupted
Speaking outside court, the girl’s mother said: “I am absolutely disgusted.
“We’ve been waiting all this time and for what? For nothing.
“It’s like my wee girl is being made out to be a liar.”
The trial heard the child had gone to the park with her scooter that morning.
She told police she sat on a bench and noticed two men nearby.
One was smoke a cigarette “very fast,” she said in her statement.
She told police: “I said out loud: ‘It’s time to go home’.”
She said one man carrying an Asda carrier bag told her: “How about you put this bag over your head, it’ll get you home.”
“He had upset me and I was scared,” the girl said in her statement.
She shouted “Help! Help!” as the man went back to drinking from a beer can.
In his evidence, the child’s father told how she ran home “scared and frantic”.
Asked how the girl was coping now, the man said: “Her mental health has gone right downhill.
“All the doors have to be locked all the time, not just at night.”
He said: “The blinds and curtains have to be drawn too.
“She’s worried a man is coming to take her away.”
Previous conviction
Sentencing then-22-year-old Tait to an eight year extended sentence in 2014, Sheriff Richard Davidson told him: “You were convicted after trial of one of the most horrible crimes I have had to deal with in the course of almost 20 years of sitting here.”
The trial heard how Tait pounced on his terrified victim and his friend as they played outside at a grassy area near their homes in Menzieshill in July 2013.
His friend managed to escape and alert his parents and police traced Tait at his home within three hours.
He claimed he had been at home watching Hollyoaks at the time.
Tait later had his sentence cut following a successful appeal.
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