A Moray man with a foot fetish asked to see the toes of a 12-year-old girl while she waited at a bus stop.
Alexander Atkinson, from Dufftown, approached the youngster near the town’s clock tower on September 25.
Following a brief exchange between the pair, the girl called her mother to say a man was “creeping” on her.
Atkinson appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court yesterday from custody to plead guilty to three charges.
During the conversation, he asked the girl: “You’re not wearing socks are you?”
When she told the 25-year-old that she was, he then asked whether she “liked wearing socks” before asking if he could see her feet.
Fiscal Alison Young said: “She said no and walked to the corner of the bus shelter to get away from him. The accused then walked across the road and, as soon as he did that, the girl phoned her mum to say a man had been creeping.”
Defence solicitor Matthew O’Neill revealed it had been a long-known fact that his client “likes feet”.
During his appearance in the dock yesterday, Atkinson also admitted asking to see feet of a 11-year-old girl in Hopeman on June 6 in 2010.
Mrs Young said: “The accused asked to see her feet. She asked why and he said ‘I just want to see them’ as he was also in bare feet at the time.
“The girl did remove one shoe and went closer to the accused to show him. He said she had ‘nice feet”.
Yesterday, Atkinson also admitted failing to tell police he was using an online account with the username “Speedboatmagraw” to access the internet between August 1 and September 6 this year.
Mr O’Neill explained his client had learning difficulties.
He said: “He has been told by myself, social workers and prison staff that this can be looked at as sex-offender-type behaviour.”
Atkinson, of Balvenie Street, had his sentence deferred until November 9 after he pleaded guilty to a charges of lewd, indecent or libidinous practices, intentionally communicating for the purposes of sexual gratification, humiliation, distress or alarm and failing to notify police he was using a username to access the internet without reasonable excuse.
