A handyman has gone on trial accused of cornering women in their own homes and asking for sexual favours in return for work.
Craig Maisey is alleged to have sexually harassed a string of customers over a three-month period while he was working for Chap Construction.
Yesterday Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard the 35-year-old struck when the women were alone, having been sent to carry out odd jobs for the company.
One complainer, who cannot be named, said he made her feel “scared” when he came to sort a leak in her bedroom.
The woman, who was on her own with her baby daughter, said he offered to fix any problems around her house in exchange for sexual favours.
She said she was left feeling “uneasy” when he claimed he had a skeleton key which could get him into any house he wanted.
And the court heard that on one occasion he said he had been working in the house across from hers and had been able to see into her building.
Maisey denies four charges which accuse him of instilling fear and alarm into different women between November 2014 and February this year.
It is alleged that on at least two occasions, he blocked the exits to their homes so they could not escape.
He is also accused of entering one complainer’s house uninvited and repeatedly refusing to leave – then, when he finally did so, sitting outside her property in his car.
During the first day of his trial, the court heard Maisey’s boss received a telephone call from one woman asking that he should never be sent round to her house on his own again.
All four women claim Maisey struck up conversations of a sexual and inappropriate nature.
During her evidence yesterday, one 23-year-old mum said Maisey originally appeared at her home with his boss, however the manager had to leave after 15 minutes.
Shortly afterwards, Maisey came into the living room and started a general conversation with her about her child.
She said this quickly got out of hand and soon he was asking if she and her partner would join him for sex, which made her feel scared and uncomfortable.
The woman told the court he then informed her that he had been carrying out odd jobs around people’s homes for sexual favours and offered her the same service.
Asked by fiscal depute Colin Neilson why she didn’t leave, she said she couldn’t as Maisey was blocking the exit.
She added: “He said that he had skeleton keys for the flats so he could access any at any time, including mine.”
The woman said that when he left she contacted Chap construction and asked if this was true.
She said she was told the firm did not think that was the case but it could not be sure, so she had her locks changed immediately.
Representing Maisey, solicitor Stuart Beveridge put it to the woman that he was just a “chatty, lazy workman” who would rather waste time talking to her than getting on with his jobs.
He said it was not Maisey’s intention to be inappropriate and that, because she was on her own at the time, she got “freaked out” by a man being alone with her in her home.
The woman denied this and said: “I have had plenty of workmen coming in and out the flat in the last year and none of them have made me feel the way he did. I have never been made to feel scared or uncomfortable by any of them.”
The court heard that after Maisey left, the woman called his bosses and reported the incident.
They then told her to inform the police about his behaviour.
The trial continues.