Judge rules out adding gropers and flashers to sex offenders’ register

By JOHN ROBERTSON
Published on Thursday 16 February 2012 00:00

A MAN who grabbed a woman’s buttocks, another who kissed a stranger on a train and a third who exposed himself have avoided being put on the sex offenders’ register after a ruling by appeal judges.

The cases were among several selected for the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh to consider challenges over whether notification requirements under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 were appropriate or necessary.

Under the legislation a list of offences, such as rape, are specified, which results in a convicted offender being placed on the register but with other crimes, such as breach of the peace, registration can also follow if a court decides there is “a significant sexual aspect” to the behaviour.

Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Gill, said that the appeals raised a difficult question over the application of the provisions for those offences not included on the specified list of crimes leading to being put on the sex offenders’ register.

The decisions have angered rape victim support groups who said it was important that crimes such as “flashing” were considered sexual offences.

Lord Gill said: “Registration as a sex offender is not a sentence. The purpose of registration is not punitive. It is protective. It enables the police to keep tabs on a sex offender who is, or may be, a continuing danger to others, and particularly to women and young people.

“However, although registration does not constitute a sentence, it is nonetheless a grave stigma and one which, designedly, places onerous restrictions and requirements on the registered offender’s life. In particular, the offender has the public status of sex offender.”

In the first case considered, Stuart Thomson, 24, of Glasgow, admitted assaulting a 25-year-old woman by grabbing her bottom in the early hours of the morning in Glasgow city centre. Sentence has been deferred.

Lord Gill said: “It would appear this was a momentary incident.

“When the complainer pushed him away, that was the end of it… I would have considered that the common sense answer was that notification and its drastic consequences were not brought into play by a minor incident of this nature.”

Robert Young, 27, of Bridge of Allan, pleaded guilty to assaulting a 15-year-old girl by kissing her on the lips on a train between Polmont and Larbert. He had been with friends and spoke to the girl, who was alone. He maintained he was drunk and that she gave him a drink. He was put on probation for a year.

Lord Gill said the Crown had not challenged Young’s account, so the case should be treated as having a sexual aspect but caused by drink rather than by sexual urges.

In the third case, James Heatherall, 23, of Loanhead, Midlothian, admitted a breach of the peace by exposing himself to a woman, 28, outside a pub in Penicuik, Midlothian. He said he had been drunk with friends and had exposed himself as a joke. He was fined £225.

Lord Gill said: “In my opinion, this was a straightforward breach of the peace on the part of a person who was drunk.”

Sandy Brindley, of Rape Crisis Scotland, said: “In general, crimes like flashing can actually be quite serious, and can have a significant impact.

“It can often be a precursor to other sexual offences, including rape. It is important that the justice system acknowledges such crimes as part of the spectrum of sexual offences.”