A Wester Ross joiner who sexually assaulted a child and pestered women for sex has been jailed.
Joseph Stewart appeared in the dock at Inverness Sheriff Court and admitted attacking a 14-year-old girl in her bed by touching her body through her clothing, undressing his lower half and trying to get the teenager to touch his penis.
The 23-year-old also pleaded guilty to stalking different women, sending sexual messages and causing fear and alarm to another woman by drunkenly climbing into bed with her.
Stewart was placed on the sex offender’s register indefinitely and banned from having unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16 for three years.
Non-harassment orders to protect his victims were also put in place by Sheriff Gary Aitken for the same period.
The sheriff told Stewart: “Given the nature, number and extent of the conduct, I am entirely satisfied that no sentence other than a custodial one is appropriate.
“This was an extensive course of wholly inappropriate conduct over a considerable period and committed while you were subject to bail.”
Addressing one charge, which involved him making a return visit to a woman’s home, the sheriff told Stewart: “This is significantly more serious.
“You went back to the house which must have been exceptionally distressing and that was while you were on three bail orders.”
Accused sexually assaulted girl
The offences were included in two separate indictments, each attracting 16-month sentences.
The sheriff said the sentences would run one after another because they were courses of behaviour committed on different occasions.
Stewart admitted a total of seven charges for offences committed between October 2015 and January 2021.
He pleaded guilty to the earliest offence of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in her bed by touching her body through her clothing, then undressing his lower half and trying to get the teenager to touch his penis.
She rebuffed his advances and “he left the room in the huff”, procurator fiscal Alison Young told the court.
He also admitted four charges of stalking different victims and sending sexual messages, a breach of bail by contacting one of them and causing fear and alarm to another woman by drunkenly climbing into bed with her.
He kissed her, and, after being pushed away, he laughed and slapped her bottom.
Mrs Young said the stalking offences were committed between December 2019 and January 2021.
Around December 2019, Stewart targeted his third victim, sending her unwanted messages seeking to meet her, forcing her to block him on social media.
The court was told that several weeks later, the woman received calls from an unknown number before Stewart appeared at her home.
“She told him to go away, was left unnerved and shaken and contacted the police,” Mrs Young added.
Victim woke to find accused in her home
Almost a year later, in December 2020, a fourth woman woke up to find him in her house “under the influence of alcohol and mumbling about having fun together”.
Mrs Young continued: “She pushed him out the door. On January 13, she received a note through her door apologising.
“But at around 1am on January 17 2021 she was awoken by banging on her bedroom window.
“She told him to go away but he continued to make advances towards her, continued to bang on the window and making comments towards her.”
A fifth woman was contacted by Stewart on December 21 2020, with him sending her unwanted messages of a sexual nature.
“She informed him she was not interested,” Mrs Young said.
Sheriff Aitken was told the woman blocked him from Facebook after receiving a friend request and on the same night as he visited the fourth woman, he turned up at her door on more than one occasion and banged on it before driving away.
‘He is ashamed of his behaviour and so he should be’
That same night a sixth woman was wakened in the early morning by Stewart asking if he could stay the night as his mother had thrown him out.
“She agreed to let him sleep in her spare room and he invited her to get into the bed he was in and asked her on multiple occasions: ‘do you ride?’
Mrs Young said he left the property but returned half an hour later, ringing the doorbell and knocking on the window.
“However she did not answer. She was left feeling vulnerable,” Mrs Young concluded.
Defence solicitor David Patterson said: “He regularly ingested illicit substances, blames this for his actions and struggles to explain his behaviour.
“He is ashamed of his behaviour and so he should be.”
Sheriff Gary Aitken sentenced Stewart, of Mackenzie Square, Aultbea, to a total of 32 months in prison.
