A mum who landed on the sex offenders register after a hen party card game of dares went wrong has admitted that she “went too far”.
Angela Cumming, 60, thrust her hand into the boxer shorts of a 22-year-old stranger when she was dared to “put an ice cube down the front of the nearest man’s trousers”.
The mother-of-four, who works as a carer, has since told social workers that she is “mortified” by her behaviour and “accepts she went too far”.
Giving evidence during a trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court last month, Cumming’s victim described how he was “shocked, shaken and violated” at the city’s College Bar.
Sheriff Margaret Hodge found Cumming guilty of sexual assault – deciding that, although her actions were not for sexual gratification, they were still sexual.
The incident even prompted the shadow justice secretary to promise “serious discussions” with Amazon over the sale of hen party dare cards like the pack that sparked the assault.
Cumming’s victim, a student, said he had been in the city centre venue around 8pm on May 7 last year, when his group of 10 friends encountered the female revellers.
He told fiscal depute Alan Townsend that he joined in some of the hen party antics initially, at one point posing for a photo with the group of around a dozen women while wearing a silly hat.
But he said things escalated when a card game involving dares and a bell started being played and Cumming approached his end of the table with ice in her hand.
‘Her hand went all the way down to my crotch’
“She put her hand with the ice over my right shoulder, trapping me in, and then proceeded to put her hand down inside my boxers,” he said.
“There was a struggle between myself and her. I said: ‘Stop. Get off’.
“I felt taken aback and in shock. I struggled because the last thing I wanted was ice inside my boxers. I didn’t want to harm anyone but I wanted to get out of the situation.
“I leaned back and pushed back from the table and found myself on the floor with my knees up, trying to protect myself. But she was still hanging over me, trying to put this bit of ice down my boxers.
“She persisted to the point where she managed to put her hand inside my boxers down past my groin and drop the ice inside my boxers.
“I felt her hands touch past my genitals. Her hand went all the way down to my crotch.”
‘I felt disturbed and violated’
CCTV footage was played to the court, which showed Cumming leaving her table of sash-wearing women and a blow-up doll, and acting in the manner described.
“One of my friends pulled her off me as I lay on the floor,” the student added. “I felt shaken, shocked, quite disturbed and violated.”
The man said he approached Cumming before they left the bar to give her a chance to apologise but when she refused, he asked her name – to which he said she replied: “I’m not that f****** stupid”.
He said other members of the hen party did apologise, saying they were “disgusted” by their companion’s actions.
Another 22-year-old man, who witnessed the incident while sitting next to the victim, told the court how he, at first, thought Cumming was trying to pull his “quite distressed” friend’s trousers down and described how others “scrambled” to help pull her off.
Taking to the stand herself, first-time offender Cumming denied her hands were near her victim’s genitals.
She said: “I thought he was bantering. I thought so, but it maybe shouldn’t have continued. It was a dare card”.
‘She basically manhandled him’
Sheriff Hodge, who examined the set of dare cards from the party during the trial, said there was no way that they could not be considered sexual.
Delivering her guilty verdict said added: “She has basically manhandled him. She was determined to get her hands into his underwear or trousers and I don’t think she cared how”.
At a sentencing hearing, defence solicitor Alex Burn told the court: “She does say she went too far.
“She is mortified in herself and by the consequences of her involvement with this”.
Cumming, of Station Road in Newmachar, was placed under supervision and added to the sex offenders register for six months.
The sheriff told her: “It does seem to me that a period of supervision will give you some support to ensure there’s no further reoffending in this way, though I am sure you know how foolhardy your actions were”.
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