A man who sexually assaulted one woman and threatened to rape another inside Elgin’s Starbucks has been jailed for 58 weeks.
James Shewan did not know the two young women when he sat down with them in the coffee shop and began making sexual remarks.
He then grabbed one of the women and put his hands inside her clothes to touch her chest and told the other: “How about I rape you?”
Shewan appeared via videolink for sentencing at Inverness Sheriff Court having previously admitted charges of threatening behaviour, communicating indecently and sexual assault in relation to the incident on April 25 of this year.
The charges detail how Shewan approached the two women in Starbucks on Elgin’s High Street and sat down with them, despite not knowing them
He made comments about their appearance and talked about “urinating in a sink”.
Man made rape threats to woman at Elgin Starbucks
Shewan made sexual remarks towards one of the women before asking her to perform a sex act on him. He also made threats to rape her.
The 41-year-old seized the other woman’s hands and rubbed them, touched her on the arms and put his hands inside her upper clothing to touch her breasts.
Shewan’s solicitor Grant Daglish said his client was “quite disgusted with himself” and “could not believe he could act in that manner”.
He said alcohol was the main factor in the former competitive badminton player’s behaviour, but suggested a head injury may also have contributed.
Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald told Shewan: “You say you don’t remember this behaviour, you heard what you said to these young women on this occasion, it was foul and disgusting.
“In particular you said to one of these women: ‘How about I rape you?’
‘Repulsive behaviour’
“This is repulsive behaviour.
“In all the circumstances and given your history of sexual offending I’m going to impose a prison sentence.”
She jailed Shewan, whose address was given as a prisoner in Inverness, for 58 weeks, backdated to 26 April this year.
She also placed him on the sex offenders register for a period of 10 years.