‘It feels like a weight lifted off my shoulders’
Kiddie sex abuse case found not proven by jury
A Wishaw man accused of sexual abuse against two young girls and a boy has walked free - after the case against him was found not proven.
Stephen Murphy’s trial at the High Court in Glasgow concluded on Monday with the jury taking a matter of hours to reach their verdict.
The jury had to consider four charges against Murphy, who was alleged to have committed abuse towards two girls and a teenage boy at two homes in Wishaw during the 1990s.
Murphy said: “I always expected to be acquitted. It was a great sense of relief.
“I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.”
The 42- year- old was accused of sexually assaulting a girl in Wishaw’s Greenside Road between May 1991 and May 1993.
He also denied using lewd practices against a 12- year- old girl in Caplaw Tower, Wishaw, in August 1997, which included touching her breasts and private parts.
The third charge Murphy denied was indecently assaulting a girl between May 1994 and May 1996 while she was asleep at a house in Greenside Road.
He was also accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy at an address in Caplaw Tower while the teenager was asleep and was unable to give consent.
A fifth charge against Murphy, also of Greenside Road, regarding use lewd practices against a nine-year-old girl was withdrawn by prosecutors on January 5.
After the not proven verdict against Murphy, temporary Judge G. K Buchanan discharged him.