A drunken pub-goer who once claimed his groping antics were an attempt at Gangnam Style dancing has now claimed an assault on a pub landlord was merely an attempt to give him a cuddle.
Derek Kerr was asked to leave Blairgowrie’s Cartwheel Inn after groping two teenagers enjoying a live music event.
Once on the pavement he lunged at James Parker, punching him in the face. Mr Parker retaliated and left Kerr in a pool of his own blood.
Kerr denied assaulting Mr Parker and sexually assaulting the young women at the Cartwheel Inn on March 8.
On Friday at Perth Sheriff Court Sheriff John Rafferty found the 37-year-old guilty and placed Kerr on the sex offenders register while he awaits sentence.
The court heard the women, both 18, had been on the dance floor with friends when Kerr approached them. One moved away when he began running his hands down her back, but the other had her rear grabbed by Kerr. Later, the group was seated in a booth when Kerr sat nearby and began talking to them, causing them to move away.
At this point the landlord intervened and asked Kerr to leave. Mr Parker escorted him through the bar but once out on the pavement Kerr hit him on his left cheek.
Mr Parker’s retaliation left Kerr unconscious on the pavement. He was later taken to hospital with a suspected broken nose.
Asked by solicitor Steve Lafferty, defending, if he had seen the assault coming, Mr Parker, who was left with a split lip in the attack, said: “No. Between me asking him to leave and him leaving he didn’t speak to me there was no cheek.”
He said he reacted by hitting Kerr with the palm of his hand, causing him to hit the ground.
“He fell and obviously hurt himself,” he said. “I called an ambulance. I thought he was unconscious. I noticed there was blood but I didn’t notice any injuries. A customer who was a first aider tended to him.”
He rejected a suggestion from Mr Lafferty that Kerr had merely been trying to put his arm around him.
Kerr, of Balmoral Road, Blairgowrie, was found guilty of assaulting Mr Parker by punching him in the face, sexually assaulting one girl by running his hands down her back towards her bottom and sexually assaulting another female by touching her bottom. All three offences took place at the Cartwheel Inn on March 8.
Sentence was deferred until August for reports to be obtained.
Last January Kerr was found guilty of groping two women at the Gig in Blairgowrie on October 14 2012. He claimed he had been emulating the “horse-riding moves” from Korean rapper PSY’s novelty hit.
He was sentenced to 100 hours of unpaid work and a six-month supervision order.