Council worker jailed for touching woman’s breasts during ‘cancer check’

A COUNCIL roads worker who persuaded a young woman to let him check her for breast cancer was jailed for two years yesterday.

James Foxton, 47, described in a court social work report as “someone clearly skilled at coercion and manipulation”, repeatedly touched and sexually assaulted the woman, then aged 16 to 20 years old.

His victim told a jury that Foxton – who worked for Clackmannanshire Council – had “touched her breasts in a circular motion”.

She said: “He said he was checking to see if there was any lumps for breast cancer.”

Stirling Sheriff Court was told that the woman was taken on late-night car journeys by Foxton, and abused by him in wooded areas near Alloa.

On one occasion he got her to rub cream on his groin, claiming it was necessary to treat a rash.

The court heard she was his second victim – the first was a girl he abused up to a dozen times when she was 14, grabbing her breasts through her clothing, groping her under her clothes, and “laughing and smirking” when she reacted with shock. He once “grabbed” her hand and forced her to perform a sex act on him. He dropped an unlit cigarette down her bra on another occasion.

Asked by prosecutor Cheryl Clark if she had ever told him to stop, the younger victim said: “There was one incident, but because I told him ‘no’, he hit me. So ever since then I was afraid to say no.”

She reported him to police on June 9, 2010, but Foxton managed to avoid facing charges because police were unable to back up her claims.

When his second victim, who was abused over a four-year period between February 18, 2013 and March 31, 2017, came forward, the similarity of her ordeal allowed prosecutors to corroborate the abuse against the first girl.

After a week-long trial last month Foxton, of Sauchie, Clackmannanshire, who had denied the offences, was found guilty of lewd and libidinous conduct towards the first victim and sexually assaulting the second.

Both victims were cross-examined by his solicitor Larissa Milligan during the trial.

She put it to them that they had made up the allegations against her client – but this was denied by both.

During recorded police interviews which were played to jurors, Foxton himself even suggested that both women, who are now in their 20s, were “infatuated” with him.

Sheriff Wyllie Robertson said: “Due to the nature and gravity of the offence of which you have been convicted, no sentence other than a custodial sentence is appropriate.”