A former Tory councillor has been found guilty of two sex attacks against children in Glenrothes.
Michael Green’s first victim told a trial he massaged her legs, put his hand under her shorts and touched her as she watched X Factor on TV when she was aged ten.
The girl, now in her 20s, recalled her attacker leaving the room afterwards with a “slight smirk” on his face.
Green was also found to have attacked a 15-year-old boy by cupping his private parts with his hand on a cycle path at Boblingen Way in November 2011.
The 73-year-old former Conservative, elected councillor for Glenrothes North, Leslie and Markinch ward in 2017, had denied the allegations.
After a four-day trial at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, Sheriff Mark O’Hanlon found him guilty of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards the girl and sexually assaulting the boy.
Green will be sentenced next month and was placed on the Sex Offenders Register meantime.
Asked afterwards for his response to the verdict, Green said: “I’m just in shock”.
Attacked watching X Factor
Giving evidence, Green’s female victim remembered lying on her front on a bed watching a replay of singer Leona Lewis in the X-factor and Green entering and sitting on the bed.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: “He just started rubbing my legs.
“It was kind of like how you would describe a massage, going up and down.
“From my ankles up to just below my bum.”
She said he repeated the motion twice and on the second occasion, touched her “private area” under her shorts.
Asked by prosecutor Lee-Anne Barclay how she felt at the time, the woman said: “Ashamed, scared, terrified”.
The woman said the incident lasted “about five minutes” before she turned and stared at him as if to suggest ‘what are you doing?’ and he stopped.
She claimed Green then left the room with a “slight smirk” on his face, adding: “I have it (the thought of him smirking) drilled into my brain every day”.
Bleach PTSD
The court also heard about more recent Facebook messages between the woman and another person she told at the time.
One suggests she washed herself in a shower with a bottle of bleach that night.
The woman told the trial she turned to alcohol at an early age and needed anxiety medication as a result of the “trauma”.
She said she suffers nightmares and PTSD, which can be triggered by the smell of bleach.
The trial also heard the girl told her mother about what happened when she was 12 but begged her not to contact police.
In her evidence, the woman’s mother said she made several attempts to talk to her about reporting the matter but believes her daughter was too scared she would not be believed.
Boy assaulted on path
Green’s male victim told the trial he had been walking on a cycle path towards Glenrothes town centre when a complete stranger spoke to him about the weather before stating something similar to “those are a lovely pair, or a good pair”.
He continued: “While that was said, he brought his hand down into my private area and proceeded to cup with his hand my private parts.”
The witness said he tried to throw a punch, then ran off and told his mother what had happened.
“I was pretty much in tears.
“My mum had to try and calm me down because I could not get a word out properly”.
They spotted the stranger again further up the path in the Woodside area and his mother confronted him.
The man’s father told the court he learned what had happened in a phone call and went out looking for the stranger.
He said he stopped a man who fitted the description.
He said he was “livid” and was shouting the word “paedo” towards him out of the car, adding: “He said ‘I did not do it, I did not do it’.”
He pointed to Green in the dock when Ms Barclay asked if he could identify the man.
Guilty
Green, of Carleton Avenue, Glenrothes, was arrested in May 2021 following a report by the female victim.
His wife of nearly 50 years, June Green, told the trial there is “no way” her husband could do what was alleged and he has only shown an interest in young people to “encourage them”.
She said her husband had previously served in the Army and prison service.
Sheriff O’Hanlon said he found both complainers credible and reliable.
The sheriff told Green: “I do consider the similarities are such that I’m satisfied beyond reasonable doubt you are guilty of both these offences and accordingly, I find you guilty”.
The sheriff adjourned sentencing until February 21 to obtain background reports and his bail was continued.
For more local court content visit our dedicated page or join us on Facebook.
