A man who cupped a council worker’s breasts and then told her “they needed lifted up” has been ordered to wear an electronic tag for six months.
David Woodcock appeared for sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court after the 56-year-old was found guilty of the sexual assault after a trial.
The court heard he was “intoxicated” and claimed he had unintentionally made contact with her while gesturing at a property in Strathspey.
The court was told how the sexual assault happened on July 27 last year as the woman was preparing to leave.
She said she thought he would make a friendly gesture but he groped her chest instead.
‘That is enough’
In evidence led by fiscal depute Victoria Silver, the court heard from Woodcock’s victim, who said she assumed he was about to put his hands on her arms and thank her.
She said: “He put his hands up over my sides and cupped my breasts with both of his hands.
“I took his hands off and I went ‘that is enough’ very sternly and I stepped back.”
She then made a comment about “boundaries” – at which point she said he told her: “They needed lifted up.”
The woman rejected a suggestion from defence solicitor John MacColl that Woodcock had unintentionally made contact with her while gesticulating.
The victim’s colleague, who was positioned behind her at the time, told the court that she saw “his arms around her sides to her back”.
Restricted to home in the evenings
She said: “When I seen it, I knew that that wasn’t right. The energy in the room just changed.”
Woodcock, of Beachen Court, Grantown on Spey, did not take the stand to give evidence in his own defence.
Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald found him guilty of the charge that he did “sexually assault [the victim] and touch her side and lower back and handle her breasts.”
As well as the electronic tag, which will restrict him to his home in the evenings, Sheriff Macdonald also placed Woodcock under social work supervision for a year and on the Sex Offender’s Register for the same period.