Driving instructor guilty of sexual attacks in car

CRIME: Neil Addison committed offences on women during lessons in Fife

A driving instructor has been found guilty of sexually abusing 14 of his female students while they were behind the wheel of his car. Neil Addison was remanded in custody after a jury found him unanimously guilty of all the charges he faced of carrying out sex attacks on young women in Fife over more than three years. A four-day trial at Dundee Sheriff Court heard from a string of young women who told similar stories of starting lessons with “friendly” Addison, only for him to begin groping them a few weeks into their tuition. He would begin by touching many of them just above the knee – what he described to police as a “reassuring pat” – and over the course of future lessons he began “squeezing” higher and higher. His final victim – 17 at the time – told how she fled his car in tears after he first groped between her thighs before lunging over and grabbing her breast while she drove around roads in Fife. She and her sister – also a victim of Addison – went to the police that night, setting the ball rolling on an investigation that uncovered many more victims. The following day Addison was interviewed by police where he said he was: “Stupid, stupid – 18-year-old head on an older body”. Addison, 55, of Holly Park, Cupar, denied 15 charges on indictment, allegedly committed between June 2014 and August 2017 during car journeys across north-east Fife. One of the charges was withdrawn at the end of the Crown case after the court heard the alleged victim emigrated to Australia. The jury of eight men and seven women took just one hour and 45 minutes to find Addison guilty of all 14 remaining charges. Sheriff Tom Hughes praised Addison’s victims, saying: “Each and every one of them can take pride from the fact they came to court and gave evidence in a dignified fashion and must take some consolation that the jury have found each and every one of them truthful.” He said: “All the young women we heard from were aged from 17 to 21 when you carried out this course of conduct.” “They were vulnerable at that particular time. They were confined in a car with you at a time when they looked to you to assist them in learning to drive. “You were in a position of trust and they were paying you good money to help them. “You were misplacing that trust and abusing the situation you found yourself in. I take the view you seemed to groom these young women.” He added: “For several weeks you ingratiated yourself to them and as time went on you took more and more liberties with them, leading to the situation we heard from the very last witness. “It is very gratifying to know they were able to alert police to this matter and ensure it didn’t escalate. “Heaven knows what could have happened had this gone untraced,” he said. He deferred sentence until September 10 for social work background reports, remanded Addison in custody and placed him on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Guilty: Fife driving instructor Neil Addison had sentence deferred until September 10, was remanded in custody and placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.