2 weeks Ago By Jenni Gee
A man who touched a woman’s breast as they chatted outside an Inverness city centre pub has been ordered to complete unpaid work in the community. Raymond Marshall, 39, was also placed on the sex offenders register for a year for the sexual assault. Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood said he would not require Marshall to complete the Moving Forward to Change programme for sexual offenders as this was aimed at “serious” sex offenders.
At an earlier trial Marshall had denied the charge, claiming any contact was “accidental” but was found guilty by Sheriff Fleetwood, who told him: “I have no doubt that you behaved in the way you did – possibly affected by alcohol or some other substance, but we have heard no evidence of that, but you did and you are guilty as libelled.” , who had been smoking with a male friend outside Lauders Bar on Church Street when they were approached by Marshall, who introduced himself as Rambo. The woman said Marshall had asked if the man was her partner and she said he was not.
She told the court: “He offered to be my boyfriend and told me I was welcome to go home with him.” Woman felt ‘cornered’ before sex assault The woman said she felt “cornered” by Marshall, who she believed to be under the influence of drink or “something else”. The woman said it was soon after this that Marshall told a story involving someone “being choked” and “demonstrated” on her.
“He grabbed my throat,” she said. The woman said she “didn’t say anything” but would have been “visibly uncomfortable” about the contact. She added: “Rambo took it as I enjoyed it and did it again to me where he put his hand around my throat.
” She then tried to ignore Marshall, which resulted in Marshall tapping her repeatedly on the chest above the cleavage to get her attention. “I tried to back away but the wall was behind me so I wasn’t able to go any further,” the woman said, telling the court that the tapping moved “slowly further down towards my cleavage” ending “at the very top of my cleavage”. She said she initially planned to give Marshall a fake telephone number when he asked for hers, but he insisted she call his phone from hers so he would have it.
She said: “He showed it to me that it was ringing – he then placed the ringing phone on top of my breast so that I could feel it ringing, I tried to move away but he was squeezing around the phone.” The friend who had been present at the time of the incident told the court he had seen Marshall “cupping” the woman’s breast. ‘One accidental brush’ Taking to the witness box in his own defence, Marshall said: “There was no groping, no grabbing, just a cuddle and one accidental brush.
” He said: “I am quite a gentleman, I like to think I am.” Speaking at the sentencing hearing solicitor Clare Russell, for Marshall, told the court that her client’s life had been “previously blighted by substance and alcohol misuse and various mental health difficulties” adding that he had now “taken appropriate steps to get help”. Sheriff Fleetwood placed Marshall on a community payback order with one year’s supervision and 100 hours of unpaid work in the community.
Marshall will also remain on the sex offenders register for a year..
