A man who claims he was molested by a former advocate when he was a boy has told a jury he was paid “£5 or £10 every time” he was indecently assaulted.
Mark Strachan is accused of touching the private parts of the two brothers who believed they were taking part in a “teenage growth study” at an address in Aberdeen between 1999 and 2001.
Both children, now adults, were aged between 13 and 15 at the time of the alleged incidents.
It is claimed within the charges that the 64-year-old instructed one boy, aged 13 or 14, to remove his clothing before taking measurements of various parts of his body, including his penis.
The charge also alleges that Strachan, of Leslie, near Insch, then handled the boy’s penis.
Strachan, who worked as a lawyer for an Aberdeen firm at the time, is further accused of an additional charge involving a second boy, then 14 or 15, at two addresses in Aberdeen between August 1999 and March 2001.
He denies all the charges.
Lawyer accused of measuring boy’s ‘private area’
While giving evidence at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, one witness told the jury that he had been indecently assaulted by Strachan “several times” at an address in the Middlefield area of Aberdeen.
He also claimed that Strachan, who was operating as the family’s solicitor, had paid him “£5 or £10 every time”.
Asked about what happened by fiscal depute Rebecca Thompson, the 38-year-old man said Strachan told him to remove his clothes before measuring his arms and legs with a tape measure.
“He then measured my private area,” the witness said.
“(Strachan) was tapping it with his pen,” he added.
“He wanted me to take it out and get it to grow – I told him, no.”
The witness went on to say that it happened “two or three times more” after the first time.
“How did those visits make you feel?” Ms Thompson asked the witness.
“I felt uncomfortable but I felt I had to do it to help out the study,” he replied.
During cross-examination, Strachan’s solicitor Kris Gilmartin suggested to the witness that the events he had described did happen but it wasn’t his client who did them.
“It was Mark Strachan that did it to me,” the man replied.
Witness broke down
The second alleged victim, now 37, broke down as he told a jury he was sexually assaulted by Strachan on one occasion in his bedroom.
He said he recalled the incident years later when driving past the block of flats where the incident allegedly occurred and claimed it felt like a “Pandora’s box had just been opened in my head”.
“For years upon years I could remember the name Mark Strachan, but I just couldn’t remember why,” he said.
Asked by Ms Thompson how he felt as a child following the alleged incident, he stated he felt “disgusting”.
During his cross-examination, Mr Gilmartin showed the man his initial police statement, which suggested it was his sister who had supplied him with the name and occupation of Mark Strachan.
“Do you accept that it was after you spoke to your sister that you became aware of the name Mark Strachan?” Mr Gilmartin asked.
“I knew the name but it was after I spoke to my sister that I found out it was my dad’s solicitor,” he replied.
The trial, before Sheriff Ian Wallace, continues.
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