Queen’s cousin in castle sex attack
Earl groped woman at his ancestral home
THE Queen’s cousin carried out a violent sex attack at Glamis Castle, ordering his terrified victim not to tell him what to do in his own home when she pleaded with him to stop.
Earl of Strathmore Simon Bowes- Lyon, 34, who was hosting a party of people at the castle last February, knocked on the door of one of the guests, who cannot be named, at 1.20am.
Fiscal depute Lynne Mannion told the court: “It was pitch black. The second she opened the door he pushed his way in and pushed her on to the bed.”
Bowes- Lyon admitted pushing the woman, who is in her 20s, on to the bed, grabbing her breasts, bottom and vagina, trying to pull up her nightdress, pushing her against a wall and trying to kiss her.
DISTRESSED
Ms Mannion said: “She raised her voice in the hope that another guest would hear her. She panicked.
“He refused to leave.”
After 20 minutes the woman managed to get him out of the bedroom and sent a series of messages asking for help.
Bowes- Lyon returned and tried to get into the room once again, but she got hold of a colleague in another part of the castle and he came to help.
The colleague later said the woman was “distressed” when he spoke to her and Bowes- Lyon had fallen asleep when he went to confront him.
The woman f led from the castle the next morning and immediately reported the attack to the police.
Bowes- Lyon is the great- great nephew of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, whose family home was at Glamis Castle in Forfar, Angus.
Bowes- Lyon walked behind Prince Philip and Prince Harry at the Queen Mother’s funeral in 2002, when he was 15.
Bowes- Lyon, who admitted sexual assault, was granted bail at Dundee sheriff court as sentence was deferred for reports. Glamis Castle is to be assessed for its suitability for a tagging order.