A Highland drum tutor has been fined £1,200 for assaulting a former pupil with a table and sending sexually inappropriate texts to a woman in Moray.
John Moneagle, 62, of Croila Road, Kingussie, was found guilty of the two charges in a trial at Elgin Sheriff Court.
On one count, Moneagle behaved in a threatening and abusive manner likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm, by uttering sexually inappropriate remarks through repeated text messages to the woman in Dufftown on June 27, 2014.
He also assaulted a former drumming pupil by throwing a table at him at the Royal British Legion in the town’s Balvenie Street, between March 1 and 31 in 2014.
Moneagle was a tutor who was helping Dufftown pipe band at the time of the offences, but gave this up when the allegations came to light in 2016.
In delivering her sentence yesterday Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov said: “What may have been acceptable back then is not now.”
Moneagle appeared for sentencing at Elgin Sheriff Court yesterday after a trial which took place over three days spread over several months due to a number of adjournments.
He was found not guilty of another sexual assault charge, and a charge of common assault was not proven.
Moneagle’s defence solicitor, Ian Cruickshank, said yesterday during his plea in mitigation that his client’s social work reports concluded he was a “low risk offender” and that it was deemed unnecessary for him to participate in relevant programmes.
He also highlighted that the relevant text conversation took place in 2014 and that, since then, both parties had ongoing direct and electronic communication.
Mr Cruickshank also said the text conversation had been a two-way exchange and remarks including sexual innuendo had come from the complainer also. Moneagle had no previous convictions.
He had once been a drum sergeant in the Tayside Police Pipe Band, and was the leading drummer of the Grade 3B Badenoch and Strathspey Pipe Band for several years.
It is thought he also taught in the US, Canada, France and Spain and led 19 bands to wins at championships across the globe.