A lorry driver who plied his victims with drink and drugs before sexually assaulting them walked free from court yesterday – to the disgust of his victims.
Steven Whitecross recruited his son and daughter as unwitting accomplices to pursue his perverted aims of fondling three of their young friends, who he plied with alcohol and cannabis.
But Sheriff Margaret Neilson told the 44-year-old father of two that she would not jail him but place him under supervision for three years.
He must carry out 300 hours of unpaid work. He was also placed on the sex offenders register for three years.
She said: “You have served the equivalent of a four month sentence because of your period on remand. The public interest and that of young women in particular would be best served by a non-custodial sentence with a sex offenders programme and supervision.”
However Whitecross’s ex-wife Linda King accused the sheriff of failing the victims.
She said: “This is not justice. He is an evil and violent man that has been put back on the street.”
One of his young victims who burst into tears when the sentence was announced sobbed: “We will be living in fear. He should have been jailed for many years. We have been failed by the sheriff.”
Whitecross himself looked shocked at the sheriff’s decision.
A six-day trial heard from three of the victims as well as his son and daughter.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that Whitecross, formerly known as Urquhart, got his teenage son and daughter drunk or high on cannabis so other teenage girls felt safe in his presence.
One was only 13 when she got intoxicated and was molested by Whitecross.
Later two more girls, one aged 15 and the other 16, were given stronger vodkas and then cannabis at his home until they could no longer stand.
Since the attack, one girl had psychiatric and psychological help and attempted suicide.
She told the court she still was nervous in the company of big men who resembled Whitecross’s physical appearance.
A jury convicted Whitecross, who used a bail address at 8 Marina Quay, Lossiemouth, on three charges of sexual assault between April 2008 and July 2012.
He was also found guilty of three charges of culpably and recklessly supplying alcohol to teenage boys and girls under the age of 18 and two charges of supplying cannabis to his daughter and two other teenagers.
