A former soldier accused of indecency towards two boys told his trial yesterday that one of the lads looked up to him, but later became a nuisance and made up “fanciful” stories.
Barry Gunn, 37, now a builder and mechanic, denied abusing one boy at various locations in Appin, north of Oban, over a five-year period when the boy was between the ages of eight and 13, from 2004 to 2009.
He also denied abusing a second boy, aged 11, by getting into bed with him and touching his private parts in 2009 at a house in Appin.
Gunn, of The Cottage, Lettershuna, Appin, is alleged to have abused the first boy at a caravan at the rear of a garage in Appin, at Calasona, Port Appin, and in a van parked at Creran Road, Appin, by touching the boy’s private parts and making the boy touch his, repeatedly showing him pornography and supplying him with alcohol and cigarettes.
Gunn told the jury at Oban Sheriff Court he joined the Army at 18 and served four years, based in Cambridgeshire. He stayed down south before returning to Appin in 2005.
The first boy gave evidence that Gunn started giving him cans of beer and cider and sexually abusing him when he was nine.
Gunn said: “He enjoyed hanging about the garage. I think he enjoyed my company. He definitely did look up to me.”
But he claimed the boy turned into “a nuisance. “He would come out with fanciful stories. He was getting into a lot of trouble in general.”
He said that in 2012 when the boy was 16, he got into trouble and he had to give him “a couple of slaps”.
But he said all the allegations of abuse were “absolutely not true”.
He said the incident with the second boy did not happen, adding that he believed the boy had been accused of stealing at the time.
Summing up, Fiscal Eoin McGinty said: “Barry Gunn is someone who sexually abuses vulnerable children. The first boy, needy, seeking approval, seeking love. The second boy, vulnerable by his situation, wrong place, wrong time.”
Solicitor Laura McManus told the jury the alleged victims were not credible or reliable witnesses, the first having freely admitting to having used alcohol and drugs, the second having changed parts of his story when questioned by her.
The trial continues.
