A man falsely accused of being a flasher after being harassed by pupils outside a school has spoken of his “humiliation” as a court cleared him of the crime.
Jamie Devine, 43, always denied engaging in sexual activity in front of a 17-year-old girl as he waited in a bus stop on the A90 outside Ellon Academy but had to go to Aberdeen Sheriff Court to prove it.
The trial heard evidence from a girl, now 18, and boy, now 17, who both claimed they had seen Mr Devine touching himself through his jogging bottoms pocket as they stood having a cigarette at the bus stop.
The New Pitsligo man has never denied being at the bus stop or appearing intoxicated but he blasted the suggestion he was carrying out a sexual act as a “total absurdity”.
The former offshore worker said the allegation “basically destroyed my life” and told how he was branded a “paedo” in the street and had part of his home set on fire.
Witnesses made allegations
The girl told the trial that Devine had sat right next to her and masturbated while “smirking” and “looking at her body”. She claimed she felt “uncomfortable and scared”.
The boy also spoke of seeing Mr Devine in the bus shelter but under questioning said he was only initially “50/50 sure” he was touching himself inappropriately.
Giving evidence to explain his version of events, Mr Devine said he’d been at the Ellon community campus with two friends on May 17 2021 while they attended a social work appointment.
Left with “an hour or so to kill” he’d walked into the town for a “couple of ciders in the pub” before returning to the area during the school lunch break.
He told defence agent Iain Jane that he’d taken that alcohol on top of prescription medication, which made him appear completely intoxicated.
He said his intoxicated manner drew the attention of youngsters, who began teasing him.
Abuse from pupils
Mr Devine said: “There was a group of about 15 to 20 boys all laughing at me. One of them was filming me. I said ‘Oi, why you filming me? Do you fancy me or something?’
“He then came back shouting ‘paedo’ and another couple of lads were shouting ‘paedo’ as well.
“They were shouting and trying to humiliate me so I just tried to turn it back on them. They weren’t shouting, they were singing ‘paedo’ at me. I was getting that sang at me from all directions.
“I checked the bus times but there was no bus coming. I didn’t want to go back into town so I just sat at the bus stop.”
‘I didn’t smirk at anyone’
He said that, in hindsight, speaking back to the boys was “the wrong thing to do because that’s what wound me up in court really”.
He said there was simply “no chance” he was carrying out a sex act at the bus shelter as he was “being humiliated” at the time and he just wanted out of there.
He added: “I was a nervous, shaking wreck. I didn’t smirk at anyone and what’s being suggested I was doing through my joggers and boxer shorts is impossible – a total absurdity.”
Mr Devine said he tried to enter the campus afterwards to speak to staff and report the abuse he’d endured but he was told to leave and, with the school already having heard the allegations, police appeared shortly after to arrest him.
‘It basically destroyed my life’
After hearing all accounts of the incident, Sheriff Rhona Wark ultimately believed Mr Devine over the teenagers.
Finding him not guilty of the charge, Sheriff Wark told him: “Your own evidence was consistent. I have witnessed you appear to be a nervous and fidgety person.”
Speaking afterwards, Mr Devine described the toll the case has taken on his life.
He said: “In the two years leading up to the trial I basically hit self-destruct. I hit the drink and was in fights left, right and centre.
“I was getting called a paedo in the street, I was attacked, I had my letterbox set on fire.
“I couldn’t go back to work – people at my work read about the case and believed all sorts.
“It was not a good time. It was horrible. It basically destroyed my life.
“I felt like crying when I got that not guilty verdict.”
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