Artist groped victims and deliberately dropped pencil so he could look up young girls’ skirts

BY TIM BUGLER bottom to push her up on to a stool to reach a high shelf.

Smith, 57, also targeted former pupils.

He invited one woman to his home to look at his paintings, then subjected her to sexual assaults in his bedroom and in his daughter’s bedroom.

The victim was so scared she decided to “play dead”.

Smith is a well-known surrealist artist whose work has sold at Christie’s.

He has taught part-time as a teacher of expressive art at a leading Scottish state school for 25 years. The school cannot be named for legal reasons.

After a three-day trial, Smith, of Dundee, was found guilty of indecent assault, sexual assault and breach of the peace.

The offences took place between 2008 and 2019.

Sheriff John Rafferty told him: “I found the Crown witnesses to be credible and reliable, in the main exceedingly impressive witnesses, and, in some instances, courageous witnesses.

“The case against you is compelling.”

Smith showed no emotion as the verdict was announced.

The court heard he had been suspended from the school for nine months and would now lose his job.

He will be sentenced in November and his name will be put on the sex offenders’ register.

During the trial, three schoolgirls told how Smith would repeatedly drop his pencil and crawl under their tables on his hands and knees, staring at their legs.

One pupil, now 15, broke down as she recounted how he touched her leg.

Another 15-year-old said she was “really weirded-out” after seeing Smith drop his pencil several times before crawling under her desk and those of her classmates.

The former pupil that Smith kissed on the day she left school said it had taken seven years for her to approach police over his behaviour.

The woman, now 28, told the court she had felt “really ashamed” and “tried to bury” what Smith – whom she described as a “guardian” figure – had done to her.

She said he used “innuendo” towards her in class, flicking her hair and “freaking her out” with his attentions.

The victim added: “Initially, I felt flattered by his attention. I was a naive 17-year-old and I thought it was because my art work was so amazing.”

She said he once showed her a picture on his art class computer of a male life drawing model “with a very large penis”.

The woman said she left school early in her sixth year, in