An Elgin man has been placed on the sex offenders register after drunkenly mistaking a police officer for a strip-a-gram.
William Coghill, 64, admitted sexually assaulting the female police officer whilst she was carrying out a routine check on Elgin’s Ionic Bar earlier this year.
Coghill appeared in Elgin’s Sheriff Court wearing a bright tartan waistcoat and seemed bemused by the sentence, shaking his head as he left the dock.
Defence counsel Grant Daglish said Coghill was “embarrassed and emotional” about the incident and was apologetic.
He said: “He is mortified by his actions and cannot explain them. It was foolish.”
Coghill, of Murdoch’s Wynd, was enjoying a night out with his wife on June 10, 2023, and had been drinking at the High Street bar.
‘I thought you were a stripper’
When the police officer entered the bar Coghill accosted her, squeezing her by the buttocks with both hands. He later claimed he “thought she was a stripper”.
At a previous hearing, fiscal despite Victoria Silver said: “Constables were carrying out checks at the Ionic Bar and William Coghill was drinking with his wife and friends.
“Coghill grabbed a constable on the buttocks with both hands. When she turned round to confront him, he said ‘I thought you were a stripper’.
“Coghill was clearly under the influence of alcohol, stumbling and slurring his words.
“He was then escorted from the premises and said, ‘I’m very sorry, it was drunken and stupid’.”
Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov made no comments as she handed Coghill a 12-month supervision order and placed him on the sex offenders register for 12 months.
