A 63-year-old former security guard was yesterday ordered to take part in a rehabilitation programme after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a teenage girl.
Alistair Milne will also be placed under supervision for three years and will remain on the sex offenders’ register for the same period.
Milne, of Altri, 71 Whitehills, Alness, denied sexually assaulting the 15-year-old by putting his hand down her jogging bottoms, touching her, pulling her towards him and kissing her on April 27 last year.
Sheriff Noel McPartlin found him guilty after trial at Tain Sheriff Court in September.
Sentence had been deferred until yesterday for background reports.
Sheriff McPartlin told Milne he was concerned that the reports seemed to show he was having “great difficulty in admitting the offence”.
He added: “I am even more concerned that you do not appear to have much realisation of the impact of the offence and subsequent trauma on the victim – a victim who acted in great courage in reporting the matter and coming here to give evidence.
“None of that seems to have come home to you.”
During Milne’s trial, the court heard that he told police he had been “capering around” with the girl and had asked her for a “proper kiss”, which he said meant a kiss on the lips.
When asked if he touched the girl, he told police: “If that did happen, it was purely by accident.”
And he claimed in court the girl had been lying about him touching her inappropriately.
Yesterday, defence solicitor Alison Foggo said her client had shown “a degree of acceptance of culpability”.
Security staff from Lifescan Scotland in Inverness came forward to give evidence against Milne after reading about the start of his trial in the Press and Journal.
Alasdair Ross, 29, a deputy security manager, told the trial that Milne had been brought before a disciplinary hearing for failing to tell the company he had been accused of a criminal offence.
Mr Ross said that, during the disciplinary hearing, Milne confessed to sexually assaulting a teenager, so they came forward to give evidence when they read that he was denying the offence.