Driving instructor abused 14 students

● Man jailed after youngsters subjected to sex attacks behind the wheel

A driving instructor who sexually abused 14 of his young female students while they were behind the wheel of his car has been jailed for four years.

Neil Addison left a series of students traumatised following the assaults that started with “reassuring pats” on the knee before escalating to groping.

The attacks only stopped when one brave student told her sister – who had also been a victim of Addison – that she had to fled his car in tears after he groped her thigh then lunged for her breast while she drove on roads around Fife.

The siblings went to police that night, starting a major investigation that uncovered a total of 14 victims.

A four-day trial at Dundee Sheriff Court heard from a string of young women who told similar stories of starting lessons with “friendly” Addison – only for him to begin groping them a few weeks into their tuition.

With many of the girls he would begin by touching them just above the knee and over the course of future lessons he began “squeezing” higher and higher.

Addison later “escalated” to groping several of the girls’ breasts.

A sheriff praised the “dignified” girls for bringing Addison to justice and said their unanimous verdicts on all 14 charges showed they had believed the victims and rejected his evidence.

He added that Addison had targeted the girls in “vulnerable” situations, adding: “It was often while carrying out difficult and dangerous manoeuvres.”

But Addison denied all the charges and forced 14 young women to give “distressing” evidence at the trial.

Addison’s final victim, now 18, told the jury that Addison had touched her “just above the knee” during early lessons – moving on to her upper thigh as time went on.

During that final two-hour session he had gone as far as putting his hand between her upper thighs, touching against her private parts. She said he then reached over and thrust his hand down her top.

The girl said: “I was driving with one hand and trying to push him away. At one point the side of his hand had been in my crotch. He was then pinging my waistband.

“When I got out of the car he said ‘don’t tell anyone about this’.”

Addison was detained by police the following day and interviewed while officers seized records of his previous students before making contact with them.

They were not told the nature of the inquiry – but all volunteered that they had been touched by him.

Addison, 55, of Holly Park, Cupar, Fife, denied a total of 15 charges on indictment, committed between June 2014 and August 2017 during car journeys across north east Fife. One of the charges was withdrawn.

Sheriff Tom Hughes jailed Addison for four years and placed him on the sex offender register indefinitely.

He said: “They looked to you to guide them paid you good money to do so. You took advantage of each and every one.”