Mòd reveller placed on

A Lancashire man who groped a woman in a bar in Fort William on one of its busiest nights of the year has been placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.

Warren Plant, 50, of Poulton Le Fylde, had denied sexually assaulting the woman on October 21, during October’s Royal National Mod, by touching her bottom, under her skirt but over her underwear.

Plant had also pleaded not guilty to a second charge of touching another woman in the bar on the same night, over her clothing.

Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald heard two days of evidence during Plant’s trial last week at Fort William Sheriff Court.

The evidence also included CCTV footage from the bar on the night in question.

The woman in charge two, who had complained that Plant had touched her bottom while she was on the dance floor speaking to friends, could clearly be seen on CCTV footage wagging her finger at someone behind her and she told the court this was after she had felt someone touching her and had turned round.

‘I turned round and told him ‘no’ and that it was not alright for him to have done that,’ she said.

The woman later gave evidence how she had comforted her younger friend after the second woman had claimed the same man had put his hand up her skirt.

During cross examination, defence agent Alan Gravelle put it to the older of the two women that she could not see who had been responsible, to which she agreed.

‘You assumed it was one of the two men behind you but you couldn’t be sure which one – is that correct?’ ‘Yes,’ she replied.

The woman told the court in her statement to police she had felt the large handbag she had over her shoulder might have been banging on the man’s knee while he was sitting behind her while she was dancing

Mr Gravelle asked her: ‘Do you see that this whole situation might have been just an attempt to get your attention because of that?’ ‘Maybe,’ said the woman. Mr Gravelle put it to the woman that there was loud music, dim lighting, the large number of people on the dance floor and alcohol consumption and with contact having lasted less than a second and with no facial expression obvious on CCTV footage that would indicate any purpose of context.

‘Could I suggest that the contact was entirely innocent?’ he said.

The woman replied: ‘No. I don’t think anyone should touch anyone else without their permission.

‘I am a young girl – why would it be OK for an older man to touch me on the bum? It is not OK.’

She said she had not had much to drink at the time of the alleged incident and denied alcohol had made things