An American child rapist jailed for an act of gross indecency in Tayside in 2010 will stand trial in his homeland on new accusations in March.
Brian Christian Hohman, 54, of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was jailed for a year and put on the sex offenders register for 10 years after trying to lure a vulnerable 15-year-old Fife boy to commit a sex act at a Dundee swimming pool.
Hohman, who is still registered as a sex offender in three US states and the UK following his Dundee conviction, is accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man in his car during an encounter in a Pittsfield parking lot.
He has pled not guilty at a final pre-trial conference in Berkshire Superior Court to one count of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 in October 2017.
Hohman allegedly tried to ply the man with marijuana and offered to pay cash for the man’s used underwear and naked pictures.
The man reported the incident to Pittsfield Police and identified Hohman as his assailant after viewing a photo array.
Defense attorney Raymond Jacoub and Assistant Berkshire District Attorney Andrew Giarolo agreed to have the case placed on the March trial list, due to the January docket already having been set.
A specific date for the trial has yet to be determined. The trial is expected to take two or three days.
Jacoub said he plans to call a DNA expert to rebut testimony from the state’s expert.
From 1989 to 1992, Hohman assaulted eight males, aged from 12 to 17.
He pled guilty in Berkshire Superior Court on March 29 1993, to four counts of rape; nine counts of rape and abuse of a child without force; nine counts of indecent assault and battery on a child age 14 or over; six counts of indecent assault and battery on a person age 14 or over; and four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Hohman spent six years behind bars in Massachusetts.
In June 2002, he pled guilty to failing to register as a sex offender in New York, and in June 2007, in Massachusetts, he was charged with being a fugitive from justice.
In November 2007, the equivalent of a fine from the prosecuting authority was imposed on him for sexual assault and he was fined $1,000.
He was not placed on the international alert list by the US authorities before he left the USA for an extended holiday in Europe and South Africa in November 2009.
The Dundee case caused outrage, prompting questions over how he was able to travel freely without being monitored or notification of his movements relayed to authorities in the countries he visited.
In January 2015, he was fined $250 for failing to register as a sex offender, and in June 2015, he was fined after being found guilty of sexual conduct for a fee and accosting or annoying another person after repeatedly propositioning a man, who also declined his advances.
