A single mother was yesterday found guilty of shouting homophobic abuse and assaulting two men in Fort William.
Sarah Ferguson, 34, had denied the verbal abuse and hitting student Ross Alexander, 21, of Glasgow, on the head with her hand.
She also pleaded not guilty to punching hairdresser James Tomlin, 22, of Inverlochy, on the head and kicking him on the body last December 6 in the town’s High Street.
Her friend, Cheryl Cullen, 32, was also accused of the verbal homophobic abuse, but the charge was dropped part-way through the trial due to lack of evidence against her.
The two women and a friend claimed in evidence that no homophobic abuse was shouted at the men and they, not Ferguson, were the aggressors.
But Sheriff Bill Taylor said the men’s evidence was “clear, not rehearsed, entirely credible and reliable”.
First offender Ferguson had sentence deferred to December 8 for a social work background report on her.
The two men gave their evidence in the witness box screened from the two women in the dock.
The mum-of-two, of Angus Crescent, Fort William, told the court Mr Alexander had insulted her.
Mr Alexander said initially his partner had been charged by police with assault two weeks after the incident.
When he heard this, Mr Alexander went to the police himself and gave them the “true” details of what happened that night. The charge was then dropped against Mr Tomlin.
He said: “We at first did not go to the police ourselves. We have been subject to homophobic abuse before and just wrote it off as small town stuff.”
Mr Tomlin told fiscal Martina Eastwood he received a black and bleeding eye after being punched by Ferguson – with rings on her fingers – and kicked.
He admitted to Ferguson’s defence lawyer, Steven Kennedy, he had punched and kicked the woman back before the two men left the scene and headed on foot for his Inverlochy home.
