A professional photographer accused of sexual assaults involving 12 women is the victim of a modern-day “witch hunt”, his lawyer told the jury today.
Simon ‘Sid’ Scott, 44, is on trial facing a dozen sexual assault and indecent behaviour charges – with many of the claims against him alleged to have taken place during photo shoots.
The police investigation into Scott’s alleged crimes saw cybercrime officers sift through hundreds of thousands of his photographs, with 150,000 deemed to contain eroticism or nudity.
Scott, of Sunnyside Road, Aberdeen, denies all the charges against him.
‘Fears have been allowed to run rampant’
In his final speech to the jury, defence advocate David Taylor suggested that his client had become embroiled in a case where sex assault accusations have “grown in the telling” and “fears have been allowed to run rampant”.
Mr Taylor referenced the hysteria that grew during the 17th century’s Salem witch trials, the “red scare” during McCarthyism in 1950s America and also the treatment of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the atomic bomb pioneer.
He claimed an “echo chamber” had been allowed to build around the accusations facing his client, using the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and the January 6 attack on the Capitol to emphasise his point.
“You ladies and gentlemen are the only defence against any kind of witch hunt,” Mr Taylor said.
“You are here to hear evidence not just accusations.
“Whilst you are here, you are judges of the facts and you decide what is credible and what is relevant.
“It’s important to remember that honest people can be wrong and I think this is very much at the heart of this case.”
Yesterday, fiscal depute Lynne MacVicar had urged jurors to convict Scott, describing his as a as a “manipulative”, “opportunistic” and “predatory” sex offender.
‘Things are twisted and changed through a distorted lens’
Today, Mr Taylor stated that during the trial efforts have been made by the prosecution to “twist and distort reasonable and normal behaviour into something sinister”.
Mr Taylor went on to define the accusations facing Simon Scott as a “retrospective distortion of reality”.
Speaking on the evidence given by a number of Scott’s female accusers, Mr Taylor said he believed a number of the women had seen a June 2020 online post accusing his client of sexual impropriety and had exaggerated
“What I would suggest you are seeing is a tale that has grown in the telling and that started online in 2020,” he told the jury.
“Complainers who were all young and inexperienced had experiences that were uncomfortable and something about which they had reservations became something sinister.”
Concluding his speech, Mr Taylor added: “I’m not suggesting collusion or that they put each other up to it.
“I’m suggesting that they read about Simon Scott being investigated and they think ‘he’s got my photograph’ and suddenly things that were innocent are no longer innocent.
“Things are twisted and changed through a distorted lens that gets us far from the truth.”
The jury will now hear legal direction from Sheriff Morag McLaughlin before they retire to consider their verdict in the case.
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