The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Hotelier convicted of bid to abduct women
COURT: Blairgowrie man tried to force two women into car after Dundee night out
A Blairgowrie hotelier is facing jail for trying to bundle two women into a car in a bid to abduct them after a night out in Dundee.
Vygantas Gadeikis, who runs the Victoria Hotel, wept and stormed out of the dock after the guilty verdict was read out.
He had previously denied assaulting Mhairi Cormack and Cherilyn Lawrie by grabbing hold of them, dragging them up a set of stairs and trying to get them inside a car.
The 28-year-old claimed he had offered one of the girls a lift home as she had “split up with her boyfriend in the club”, and that she had walked to the car before changing her mind.
However, a jury took just over an hour to find him guilty of two charges of attempted abduction.
A hotelier who drove his wife’s car round Dundee before trying to abduct two girls as they walked home from a night out at the student union is facing jail.
Vygantas Gadeikis’s wife had gone on holiday in October 2015 – leaving Gadeikis, who runs the Victoria Hotel in Blairgowrie, alone for two weeks.
While she was away he went for a night out with friends in Dundee, first visiting Fat Sam’s nightclub before leaving there at closing time.
He and three friends then drove around in his wife’s Volkswagen Touran people carrier, eventually stopping close to the Dundee University student union in Park Wynd.
There he engaged Mhairi Cormack and Cherilyn Lawrie in conversation – claiming he wanted directions.
But when they said goodbye and went to walk away down a flight of stairs Gadeikis got out and followed them before grabbing them and hauling them back towards his car.
He then tried to shove Miss Cormack into his vehicle as she held on to the door frame to keep herself out.
Meanwhile, the court was told another man held Miss Lawrie against a set of railings, preventing her escape.
Miss Cormack, a student at the university, told a jury at Dundee Sheriff Court: “I remember asking the men if they were German – they said they weren’t.
“I spoke to them for five minutes then we said goodbye and turned to walk down the stairs.”
“Two men got out of the car and one pulled us by the arm back up the stairs.
“I turned round and said what are you doing.
“One of them grabbed us by the arm and pulled us back up the stairs.
“We were trying to shrug him off, then he tried to push me in to the car.
“I remember being pushed and I was holding on to the car window and the man was trying to push me in to the car.
“Then I saw two boys walking and I thought one of them was my friend Stuart so I shouted ‘Stuart, Stuart’.
“The man asked who they were and I said it was my boyfriend and he let me go.
“I was just so caught up in the moment it wasn’t until the next day I realised it could have been a dangerous situation.”
Stefan Jones, 19, was one of the students approached by the two girls as they escaped Gadeikis.
He said: “She was calling my friend Stuart – but his name is Leo.
“They appeared quite flustered, they were talking urgently.
“One of them pointed at a car and said the men were trying to drag her in.”
But Gadeikis vehemently denied the charges, telling the jury: “We asked them if we were allowed to park in a car park there and they said yes.
“One of the girls seemed upset – she said she had split up with her boyfriend in the club.
“I offered her a lift home and she walked to the car.
“Her friend told her not to get in a stranger’s car and she walked away.”
Gadeikis, 28, of Victoria Hotel, Lower Mill Street, Blairgowrie, denied two charges of attempted abduction on indictment.
However, a jury of seven men and eight women took just over an hour to find him guilty of both offences, which were committed on October 3 2015.
Meanwhile Evaldas Norbutas, 28, of Croft Court, Blairgowrie, was cleared of a charge of abducting Miss Lawrie after a submission by his lawyer that there was no case to answer was upheld, due to a lack of corroborated identification evidence.
Sheriff Tom Hughes deferred sentence until July 28 for background reports and released Gadeikis on bail.
He said: “I will continue your bail at this stage. However, this is a very serious matter indeed.”
I remember being pushed and I was holding ontothecar window and the man was trying to push me in tothecar. WITNESS MHAIRI CORMACK