A Nairn driving instructor has been convicted of sexual assaults against two former students.
John Falconer had denied 10 charges of sexual assault against 10 different women and was acquitted of eight following a week-long trial at Inverness Sheriff Court.
The 61-year-old’s former students told the court how he touched their breasts, with the two victims describing “cupping” and “squeezing”.
Falconer, who has now been removed from the register of driving instructors, insisted any contact with the women was “totally accidental”.
‘He had a pretty strong hold on me’
In evidence led by fiscal depute Naomi Duffy-Welsh, one victim told the court: “When I would be driving he would be giving me pointers or gesture me to do things, his hands would lay on my breast.”
“As time went on it became clear it wasn’t a mistake.”
Asked why she had not spoken up at the time, she said: “I was only 17 and nervous and locked in a car with him, well not locked, I just didn’t want to make it awkward.”
She also described how, on one occasion, Falconer touched her after they pulled up outside her own home.
She said: “This was a lot harder on my breast with a proper grip, squeezing it until it kind of hurt – it was definitely uncomfortable. I tried to pull away, he had a pretty strong hold on me.
”I said ‘no, no’ and eventually got out. I think he was talking to me but I just shut the door on him and walked inside.”
She said: “I was quite scared.”
Second victim describes ‘cupping’
Falconer’s other victim, now 21, told the court she had gone to him for driving lessons in 2021 after a number of recommendations.
She described how she was targeted on the day she passed her driving test.
”We were parked outside my house. I was in the passenger seat he was in the driver’s seat,” she said.
“He hugged me, he put his hand round my chest area and he left it there for three to five seconds.
”It was kind of like, there, cupping underneath it, he kind of like grabbed it if that makes sense,” the woman told the court.
She added: “It was kind of like, if you were trying to squeeze a ball, like a squish ball, a stress toy.
‘I never gave consent’
”I was really shocked, I didn’t know what to say or do, I was just uncomfortable I wanted to get out of the car.
“I never gave him consent.”
Eight other former students gave evidence and variously described being touched on the breasts, legs and, in one case, the bottom.
Falconer conceded physical contact may have taken place but insisted that if it had, there was no sexual motivation.
Seven jury verdicts of “not proven” and one of “not guilty” acquitted him of these charges.
Driving instructor’s evidence
Taking to the witness box in his own defence, Falconer had told jurors of teaching up to 500 students to drive over his 13 years in business.
He said had been removed from the register of driving instructors as a result of his arrest.
Standing motionless in the witness box under questioning from defence counsel David Taylor, he said: “I do use my hands a lot when I’m talking in the car but as far as touching anybody on the breast, it was totally accidental. If I did do it, I don’t even remember.”
He admitted hugging his students but told the court: “I was just being friendly.”
Asked by his defence agent if there were “any sexual intent” to what he did he replied: “No.”
Questioned about how the allegations had made him feel, he said: “Bad. I’m sorry if anybody felt like that – I was only trying to be friendly.
“If I made anyone feel like that I wish they had said something to me.”
Sentence deferred
Under cross-examination from the fiscal depute, Falconer conceded he had been in a position of trust at the time of his crimes, but he said: “All I was doing was being friendly and supportive. I didn’t think in my mind that I was doing something wrong.”
But a jury took around four hours to find Falconer guilty of the two charges.
One detailed how, on various occasions in 2017, he sexually assaulted the 17-year-old in the course of a driving lesson at various locations around and while travelling between Nairn and Inverness.
The libel told how he touched her breasts, requested that she hug him, embraced her and wrapped his arms around her body to enable him to further touch her breasts and, on one occasion, grabbed her breast and squeezed it over her clothing.
The other charge he was found guilty of described how, in August 2021, he sexually assaulted the teenager at locations in Inverness and Nairn by requesting that she hug him, embracing her and wrapping his arms around her body and touching her breasts over her clothing.
Following the conviction, Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald told Falconer she would defer sentence for a criminal justice social work report and an assessment for the Moving Forward 2 Change programme for sexual offenders.
Sheriff MacDonald also placed Falconer on the sex offenders register with immediate effect.
The case will call for sentencing next month and Falconer, of Cawdor, was released on bail in the meantime.