Boasting fisherman in court over sex video

A Tiree fisherman who put a sex video of himself and a woman on a Facebook group chat was motivated by ‘immaturity and thoughtlessness’, a court has heard.

Oban Sheriff Court heard it was the complainant who took the intimate video and sent it to Bernard Smith but he ‘rather foolishly’ passed it on to what he thought was a close circle.

It went beyond that and way out of control, further than he had anticipated or intended, the court was told last week after it was then shared even more widely.

Smith, 22, of West Hynish, pleaded guilty to posting the video in May this year and showing it to people. He had been boasting about what was on it and what he had taken part in.

Smith also admitted an earlier offence of touching another woman’s buttocks over her clothing at an Oban pub on December 16, 2017, but the court heard the pair had been ‘sexting’ each other and the woman had sent some explicit images that ‘left nothing to the imagination’ before the incident happened.

‘This has been a salutary lesson for him. He realises in the cold light of day his actions were stupid and crass in the extreme,’ said his solicitor, who added his client was ‘not seen as a danger’.

Sheriff Patrick Hughes told Smith: ‘You can’t treat women in this way. It’s wholly unacceptable.’

He said showing the intimate video was ‘reprehensible’ and a most serious charge.

‘It has caused great embarrassment and pain to the complainant, accentuated by the close-knit community we live in. I accept it was not malicious but was motivated by immaturity and thoughtlessness,’ the sheriff added.

Smith was ordered to pay £3,000 compensation within six months, be under social work supervision for 12 months and was put on the sex offenders’ register for 12 months. His progress will be monitored in four months as the orders were an alternative to custody.