A sex pest shopkeeper who was caught out by his own CCTV has been placed on the register for 18 months.
Rajiv Sharma inadvertently filmed himself sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in his convenience store in Anstruther, Fife.
Sheriff Francis Gill told him: “I found you guilty of this charge after trial. I found the Crown witnesses to be credible and reliable.
“Although it happened over a short period, it is clear this incident caused a great deal of distress to the complainer.
“I am concerned about your understanding of appropriate boundaries between adults and young people such as in this case.”
Sheriff Gill ordered married Sharma to attend the Tay Project course for sex offenders and placed him on an 18-month supervision order.
Caught on camera
The sex attack was captured on Sharma’s shop security cameras and was also witnessed by two of the victim’s schoolfriends.
Sharma, the boss of A&A Stores in Anstruther, reached out and touched the teenager as she walked up an aisle on 21 June last year.
Sheriff Gill found Sharma, 49, Woodside Avenue, Dundee, guilty of the assault after a trial at Dundee Sheriff Court.
The court heard evidence from the 15-year-old through a video link, in which she described Sharma touching her abdomen.
Security footage from inside the shop was played in court and showed the girl and Sharma walking from opposite ends of an aisle towards each other.
As Sharma passed, he extended an arm and touched the girl on the body. Two of her friends were directly behind her and in eyeline with the assault.
The girl’s 42-year-old mother told the court it had been a school day and that her daughter had come home from the shop in a distressed state.
She said: “She was very distressed, crying and wanting to get her clothes off. I tried to calm her down. I got her to talk to me.
“I sat with her. I said to her everything was going to be okay.” She told the trial she had contacted the police.
Sheriff Gill said: “The evidence is clear that you touched the complainer on the stomach.”
Sharma told the court: “My intention was not that, and my wife is there always.”
For the latest court cases across Tayside and Fife, join our Courts Facebook page.
