Creepy curler groped rival’s wife to put him off shot
Guilty of grabbing her breast... but unfazed husband still won
A CURLER sexually assaulted a woman in the final moments of a match in an attempt to distract her husband from playing a winning shot.
George Elder, 63, cuddled the player and told her: ‘Let’s see if we can put him off,’ before grabbing her breast, a sheriff was told.
Yesterday, Elder was placed on the sex offenders’ register after being found guilty following a two-hour trial.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard from his victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, about the incident at the Inverness Ice Centre last February.
She told how she was participating in a match against Elder’s team and her husband was about to play the final stone.
She told fiscal depute David Morton: ‘My husband was about to play his last shot after George, who had come alongside our team.
‘This was against the rules. He gave me a cuddle and said, “Let’s see if we can put him off.”
‘Then he grabbed my breast without warning. I pushed his hand away and said, “That’s enough of that, you.”
‘I asked my husband if he had seen it and he said no but added, “I am not surprised”.
‘Then he played his stone and we won the match. I could see that another player had seen it and I went over to her to confirm it.’
The woman added: ‘When I saw George in the gallery later, I told him that his behaviour was entirely inappropriate. He apologised.’
Cross-examined by defence lawyer John MacColl, the woman denied that it could have been an accident.
She said: ‘I didn’t have a problem with anyone giving me a cuddle but it was deliberate contact with my breast.
‘It was not a matter of him putting a hand across my chest
‘I pushed his hand away’
to give me that cuddle and accidentally touch my breast.
‘I didn’t report it at first because I wanted to take some advice at first.’
Two other players at the ice rink that afternoon, Glasgow University chemistry student Amy Macdonald, 18, and Gregor Ewen, 21, a joiner from Elgin, Moray, also gave evidence and said that the act appeared intentional.
Miss Macdonald said: ‘George came up to distract the player who was about to play the winning shot. He and the woman didn’t really know each other, they were just acquaintances.
‘He put his hand on her chest and touched her breast. I did not see it as a joke and she didn’t see the funny side of it.’
Mr Ewen agreed with Mr MacColl that Elder, a wealthy farmer, was joking about and had ‘a drink in him’.
‘He intentionally grabbed her breast as her husband was about to play a shot,’ the witness said. ‘He was quite angry about it but he played it anyway and won the match.’
In evidence, Elder, of Brodie, Moray, said: ‘If I touched her breast, I was unaware of it.
‘I put my hand round her waist and if I did touch her breast it was accidental and unintentional. Rather than make a scene at the gallery bar, I just apologised to her.
‘I was stunned when the police came to my door. I told the officer that I didn’t do what I was accused of.’
Sheriff Chris Dickson rejected Elder’s evidence and called for a background report on the first offender.
He then placed him on the sex offender’s register.
Elder will return to court for sentencing on February 12.