A YOUNG man accused of a sex attack on a north-east schoolgirl walked free from court yesterday.
John Tait had faced allegations that he molested the youngster on her 14th birthday.
The alleged victim, giving evidence yesterday at Peterhead Sheriff Court, said she struggled to get away from Tait as he hugged her and touched her.
Tait denied the allegations.
After just over an hour of evidence, however, Sheriff Gregor Murray ruled that the case was not proven, saying evidence led by the Crown was unreliable.
He told Tait: “I hope you emerge from this experience a better and more mature person.”
Tait’s agent, solicitor Sam Milligan, argued that his client had given the girl a hug as a “birthday present” but insisted he had never touched her inappropriately.
The court heard that Tait, 18, had been with the schoolgirl and two other friends on a street in Fraserburgh on April 14.
Giving evidence from behind screens, the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Tait had sent her a text message that day asking to meet at about 8.30pm.
She said she and a female friend had sat on a wall and Tait and another male approached them on bicycles.
She said Tait sat down beside her and put his arm around her. Asked by procurator fiscal Gavin Letford how this made her feel, she said: “Uncomfortable.”
The girl said she moved away from the wall and started to walk up a brae.
Tait followed her and put his arms around her from behind, she alleged.
He touched her breasts and her buttocks as she struggled to get away, she told the court.
“He was much stronger than me and I couldn’t lift his arms,” the girl said.
She said the “struggle” lasted three or four minutes.
The court also heard from her 14-year-old friend, who also gave evidence from behind a screen.
She claimed initially that Tait had touched her friend inappropriately as they sat together on the wall but, after further questioning, she accepted she could not remember that happening.
The girl said she had seen Tait assault her friend as they walked up the brae, but Mr Milligan argued that it would have been difficult to see what Tait was doing with his hands if she saw him only from behind.
Tait, whose address was listed as Springfield High, Invernorth, Fraserburgh, declined to comment as he left court.