OAP who assaulted teens avoids jail term

A pervert shopkeeper who sexually assaulted two young girls has been ordered by a court to stay away from children.

John McGarva was found guilty of groping youngsters aged 14 and 16 at the shop he used to run in Kinross.

The 69-year-old has always denied touching the girls inappropriately, but at a trial in September, Sheriff William Wood dismissed McGarva’s “conspiracy theory” that one of the girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, persuaded her friends to make up the allegations because he had refused to give her money.

Yesterday, McGarva, of Kinglassie, Kinross, returned to Perth Sheriff Court for sentence.

Sheriff Wood placed him on supervision for three years and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work within six months.

He was also told he could not deliberately make contact with anyone younger than 16, apart from any close relatives.

Sheriff Wood told him: “It’s perhaps just as well that you are no longer running a shop,

“I did consider a custodial sentence in this case, but I am satisfied that that is not the only way this can be dealt with.”

The trial heard that McGarva had molested his victims between December 2011 and December 2012 at his New Cree Cards store.

McGarva’s solicitor David Holmes said his client still denied the charge, despite the outcome of the trial.

The court heard that McGarva lived on his own in a remote house surrounded by two acres of field.

“He does regularly carry out unpaid work for people in the area, such as chopping wood,” said Mr Holmes. “He is certainly fit and able to carry out work in the community.”

McGarva was also told he must stay on the sex offenders’ register for three years.

Sheriff Wood said that if he breached any conditions, he could be brought back to court.