Sexually assaulted new friend

A Perth woman who befriended a man who lived nearby during the coronavirus lockdown was sexually assaulted by him as he stalked her for more than five months.

Forty-two-year-old Barrie Cameron later struggled violently with police officers as they tried to arrest him.

Perth Sheriff Court was told that on one occasion he barged into her home and repeatedly banged on the walls.

The sexual assault took place in Perth city centre when he struck her on the buttocks.

Cameron was spared a jail sentence at Perth Sheriff Court and instead will be supervised for two years and will have to complete 105 hours of unpaid work within the next 12 months.

The accused, said to have “a difficulty with alcohol,” had his name added to the Sex Offenders’ Register for two years.

Sheriff Pino Di Emidio also imposed a two-year non-harassment order, banning him from contacting the victim.

Cameron’s progress on the community payback order will be reviewed on January 20, 2021.

He admitted engaging in a course of conduct between March 1 and August 14, 2020, which caused the female fear or alarm by entering her home uninvited.

He also followed her, stared and made offensive comments.

He also sexually assaulted her at Horner’s Lane, Perth, on July 25, 2020, and then resisted arrest at his home on August 14, 2020, by resisting PCs Scott Duffin and Emma Irons by struggling violently with them.

The court heard that the woman was left distressed and anxious as a result of Cameron’s behaviour.

A solicitor for the accused said that because of his client’s alcohol intake, his actions were “out of character.”

“He’s willing and able to undertake unpaid work and the non-harassment order isn’t opposed,” he added.

Imposing the community payback order as a direct alternative to prison, Sheriff Di Emidio noted that the accused had been remanded since August 17 and had spent the equivalent of three months behind bars.