A former police officer who starred in a BAFTA winning BBC series has been given an extended three year sentence after carrying out sex attacks on several women.
Charles Pirie was jailed for two years and had a further 12 months extended licence period added as a sheriff told him he posed a significant danger to lone women.
Pirie was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and a Sexual Offences Prevention Order was granted against him by Sheriff William Wood at Perth today.
The 65-year-old father-of-four exploited vulnerable women who worked for him and told them he would sack them if they did not perform sex acts upon him.
A jury found Pirie guilty of sexually abusing five different women over a six year period while he was running outdoor pursuits and security stewarding firm Atholl Adventures.
The firm, which he has sold on, recently provided security for a visit by the Queen.
Pirie – who wrote a book based on The Gamekeeper series in which he starred – employed around 200 people and picked out predominantly young women in their 20s to target.
Sheriff Wood said: “This was a course of conduct over a five year period. There was abuse of power and exploitation of your relationship to these women.
“You exploited your role, knowledge and experience as a special constable. You were willing to use force. I am satisfied you present a significant risk to unaccompanied women.”
One victim described how Pirie persuaded her to travel to Fort William on a work trip within days of starting working for one of his companies.
She was deeply concerned when they arrived at a hotel to discover he had only booked one room and she called her parents but the weather meant she was snowed in.
The woman, who was visibly upset as she gave evidence at Perth Sheriff Court, said she had no option but to stay in the room with Pirie.
She said there were single beds and she tried to go to sleep but Pirie plagued her with sexual innuendo and invited her over to his bed to perform sex acts on him.
She refused his sleazy advances and reported his behaviour when she got home. Police were called in and a large scale probe discovered a string of victims going back several years.
Pirie got the women alone and sexually assaulted them at events where his company was working including a Rob Roy event, the Glamis Country Fair and at The Hermitage beauty spot.
The jury was told that Pirie exploited his position as a powerful employer to pick on young women who were grateful for the work and were afraid to report him.
Another victim described how she was camping near Killin in Perthshire when Pirie crept into her tent and groped her as she struggled to fend him off.
Yet another woman told the jury that Pirie spent more than a year bombarding her with filthy suggestions about sex acts he wanted her to carry out on him.
He then cornered her at the Glamis Country Fair and seized her and kissed her on the face before a struggle as she tried to break free from his grasp.
Fiscal depute John Malpass told the court that each of the women had been the subject of “a pattern of behaviour” at various times between 2008 and 2013.
Pirie, 65, Ballinluig, Perthshire, had denied all of the charges but was found guilty of six out of the seven he faced. The court heard he called his victims “f*** pigs” and showed no remorse whatsoever.
Pirie, who worked in Highland Perthshire for several years as a special constable for Tayside Police, was the main focus of the acclaimed BBC documentary “The Gamekeeper” which was filmed on Atholl Estates, Blair Atholl, during the 1990s.
He founded Atholl Adventures and hired another former police officer as operations manager. The company was hired to marshall the Queen’s visit to Perth in 2012.
