A fisherman who claimed he was playing a “practical joke” when he pulled down a sleeping woman’s trousers was jailed yesterday after he was convicted of indecently attacking the victim.
William Murdo MacKinnon, 58, took down the woman’s lower clothing and sexually assaulted her while carrying out a sex act on himself.
Dunvegan man MacKinnon had carried out another assault on a sleeping woman more than a year earlier.
Both victims were attacked at an address on Skye.
MacKinnon had denied the offences during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh but was unanimously found guilty of both charges.
The first offence occurred in January 2014 when he assaulted a woman who was asleep and incapable of giving or withholding consent.
He touched her breast and rubbed himself against her and attempted to rape her.
The second victim was attacked in February 2015 when she was asleep and incapable of giving or withholding consent when he took down her trousers and pants.
A judge told him: “By the verdict of the jury, the unanimous verdict, you have been convicted of two serious sexual offences, one of attempted rape and one of sexual assault.”
Lord Tyre said he had to get a background report on MacKinnon before sentencing him because he has never previously served a jail sentence.
He told MacKinnon, who ran a shellfish business, that he would consider all sentencing options but added: “I think you have to prepare yourself for the likelihood of a custodial sentence.”
MacKinnon, who had been on bail, was remanded in custody and placed on the sex offenders’ register.
The judge told jurors who served at the trial that it was “a serious and distressing case”.
