Indecent assault

A SHETLAND accountant has been placed on the sex offenders’ register after indecently assaulting a woman at a party more than two years ago.

Appearing at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Thursday, 35 year old Iain Charlton, of 8 Tripwell, Brough, Whalsay, admitted climbing into the bed of a sleeping woman and unclasping her bra on 9 January 2011.

Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said Charlton was attracted to the woman at a party being held in a house in Lerwick’s St Magnus Street, but his interest was not reciprocated.

The woman went to bed and fell asleep, only to be woken by “two hot, sweaty hands” on her back.

She managed to roll out of bed, and run downstairs to her friends where she cried and screamed that there was someone upstairs in her room.

It was only later during the course of another investigation that Charlton was interviewed by the police about the incident.

He told them he could not remember what had happened, but accepted that what he was accused of must have taken place if others said so.

Placing him on the sex offenders’ register, Sheriff Philip Mann deferred sentence until13 June for background reports.