A 27-year-old man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman at a Kirkcaldy nightclub by “rubbing his head back and forward” in her breasts.
Labourer Michael Herriott left his victim feeling “shocked” and “violated” after the attack at the Society venue in the town’s Charlotte Street in the early hours of November 6 last year.
Herriott had denied the sexual assault, claiming it was done as a “joke”, that he was drunk at the time and there was no sexual intent.
But a sheriff found him guilty of sexual assault following a trial at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.
‘I was violated’
In her evidence, the woman told the trial she was sitting in the VIP area of Society nightclub when she was suddenly attacked by the stranger.
The woman, aged 30, said: “The boy just pushed his face into me.
“He pushed his face down into my chest, down into my top, and I pushed him away and he then walked away.
“When he pushed in (to her breasts), he was kind of like rubbing his head back and forward.”
Asked by prosecutor Eve McKaig how she felt, the woman said: “I felt shocked, violated.
“I am not sure why someone would do that. I felt upset.
“I had not had someone do that before and can not see why someone would do that.
“I was wearing a low cut top but did not feel that gave anyone permission to push their face down into my top”.
The woman said she confronted Herriott afterwards and asked him why he had done what he had.
She then spoke to a bouncer and a manager and contacted police.
‘I just thought it was a laugh’
CCTV from the nightclub showed the woman, sitting in a chair, pushing a man away after he bent down and appeared to move his face towards her breasts.
A witness, sitting close to the woman at the time, told the trial she saw Herriott “put his head into her (the woman’s) chest” then walk away.
She said the woman was shocked and crying afterwards.
Herriott, of Frances Row in Dysart, told the trial he arrived at the nightclub with friends at around midnight after drinking from noon.
Asked by defence lawyer Martin McGuire about what he was doing, he replied: “I was trying to have a joke.
“I never intended for it to be anything sexual. I just thought it was a laugh”.
Asked how he felt about his behaviour on reflection, he said: “Quite disgusted.
“I was really intoxicated and thought it would be funny. Clearly it was not”.
Herriott denied there being any sexual motivation to his actions.
Asked by the fiscal if there was anything in the woman’s body language which made him think she wanted him to come over, he said: “Not 100% sure. I was really drunk”.
‘Women have the right to feel safe’
Sheriff Mark O’Hanlon found Herriott guilty and told him: “It was carried out deliberately and it’s not a defence for you to say simply you were drunk.
“Women have the right to feel safe in public.
“Someone like yourself approaches, fuelled with alcohol and touches in that manner.
“It’s nothing other than sexual and fuelled by drink is no excuse in any shape or form.
“It’s never a joke, drunk or sober.
“Clearly there is a sexual element to this charge and I find you guilty of it.”
Sheriff O’Hanlon adjourned sentencing until August 23 for the production of background reports.
Herriott, also known as Michael Dunn, was placed on the Sex Offenders Register meantime.
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