An 85-year-old man has gone on trial accused of assaulting three vulnerable women.
Michael Findlay denies the string of assaults, which allegedly took place at care facilities across Aberdeen over a two-year period.
Yesterday, he went on trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court facing five charges, spanning from 2016-2018.
Findlay is accused of kissing one woman and touching her inappropriately while knowing she was unable to consent, on one occasion putting his hand up her top and on another lifting her skirt.
It is alleged he inappropriately touched the second woman over her clothes, and sexually assaulted a third woman by kissing her several times to the face.
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Yesterday, one care worker told the court she saw Findlay kissing the first woman “with tongue” while sitting in the lounge area of the care home.
She also said she overheard Findlay shouting “stop annoying me” while the woman was having a coughing fit, and mentioned another incident where she saw him putting a hand on her chest.
When asked by fiscal depute Karen Dow how she had responded, the care worker said: “I told my line manager, because it is not right. People of that age should not be kissing with tongues.
“It is not right.”
The court heard that Findlay, of Louisville Avenue in Aberdeen, had initially been visiting the women with a member of the Aberdeen Advocacy team due to a bail condition, but when that was lifted he continued to see them on his own.
Staff at the care home were instructed to “keep watch” on Findlay and the care home manager yesterday said she would “never let him be in a room alone” with the woman – who was described as “not mobile”.
Another worker at the home said she had seen Findlay put his hands on the woman’s leg, and that she intervened when she thought it looked like he was moving too close to her inner thigh.
The court heard that she had been sitting opposite the pair and immediately stood up and moved a table away “so I could see what was in front of me”, adding: “He was touching her thigh – it was like he was brushing away crumbs.”
The trial, before Sheriff Andrew Miller, will resume on April 17.
