A Fort William sex offender who sexually assaulted three young victims has avoided jail.
Robert Lawrie was convicted of the sex assaults, indecent communication, voyeurism and sexual exposure following a trial at Inverness Sheriff Court.
At the sentencing hearing today, a sheriff said it was “alarming” that he failed to recognise the criminality of his behaviour.
The charges detailed how Lawrie, 38, targeted one teenager by striking her on the buttocks, commenting on her body and asking her intimate questions.
He also communicated indecently by making a comment of a sexual nature toward the same victim when she was over 18.
A second teenage victim was touched on the thigh and slapped on the buttocks as well as being touched over and under her clothes by Lawrie, who also intentionally exposed his genitals to her.
Sex offender’s voyeurism
Lawrie asked this teenager sexual and intimate questions and observed her naked and doing a private act.
A third teenage girl was slapped on the buttocks by Lawrie.
The crimes all took place between 2013 and 2023 in Lochaber.
During the trial, one of Lawrie’s victims told the court that his actions left her feeling “uncomfortable” and “vulnerable”.
In evidence led by fiscal depute Pauline Gair, she said she thought: “How do I get out of this?” adding: “I wanted to say something but I knew I couldn’t.”
She rejected suggestions from Lawrie’s defence agent Clare Russell that his behaviour had been “playful” or “normal” and not sexual.
But a jury took under two hours to reject this position – finding Lawrie guilty of five charges unanimously and one by majority.
Inappropriate criminal behaviour
At the sentencing hearing, Ms Russell told Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald her client had accepted his physical conduct from the outset – and now understood that it was inappropriate.
But Sheriff MacDonald replied: “Inappropriate is not enough to describe what went on here”
Ms Russell said: “He maintains his position that there wasn’t, at the time, any sexual element to his behaviour.”
The defence agent highlighted that an assessment had found Lawrie to be at low risk of reoffending.
Sheriff MacDonald said: “Your client had gone through this whole process not understanding that his behaviour is criminal.”
She added: “It is quite alarming.”
The sheriff told Lawrie she could quite easily send him to jail for his offences, but noted that this would only be for a relatively short period and would not see him receiving any help to address his behaviours.
Sex offender spared jail
She instead placed him on a community payback order with 300 hours of unpaid work in the community – the maximum allowed – and required him to remain under social work supervision for two years.
Sheriff MacDonald made non-harassment orders preventing Lawrie, of Lochyside, Fort William, from contacting his victims – two of them for five years.
The third non-harrassment order will remain in place for two years, and Lawrie will stay on the sex offenders register for the same period.