A court was told a Dundee man hid in a woman’s house before subjecting her to a terrifying sex attack.
Liam Gray carried out a sexual assault after a barbecue at an address in the city.
During the course of the evening he sent a number of lewd texts to the woman, with whom he had previously had a sexual relationship.
When she repeatedly rejected his advances she claimed he pretended to leave the house and waited until she had gone to her bedroom to force her to perform a sex act on him.
Gray, 28, maintained that the encounter was consensual when he stood trial accused of rape at the High Court in Stirling.
He was found guilty of the lesser crime of sexual assault after a trial lasting three days.
Hid in house
The trial was told Gray originally met his victim – who cannot be named – on Tinder and had a brief relationship.
During the course of the barbecue she repeatedly refused Gray’s crude sexual advances, telling him she was interested in someone else.
In the early hours of the morning, as the party broke up, Gray was in the woman’s bedroom.
She told the court: “He said he was going to leave. He went downstairs and I heard my front door opening and closing.
“I locked my door and went to bed. Not even 30 seconds later Liam came running upstairs and into my room.
“He jumped onto my bed. He jumped onto me. He said he’d hid behind my couch.
“He started trying to kiss me and touch me.”
The woman said Gray had tried to put his hands in her underwear and had demanded she masturbate him, which she initially agreed to do in the hope that he would leave her alone.
The woman texted a friend for help and her mother took her to the police station the following day.
Denials
Gray claimed the woman was a willing participant and they had had another sexual encounter a few days before.
He said in a group chat on WhatsApp he had denied attacking the woman, claiming that he had gone home, adding “I didn’t f***ing touch her”.
He said he had lied to his girlfriend about staying at the property as he “didn’t want her to find out I was cheating on her”.
Gray, of Strathmartine Road, was found guilty of sexually assaulting the woman at her home on March 18 2021.
He was bailed ahead of a sentencing hearing set to take place in Edinburgh next month and placed on the sex offenders register in the interim.
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