A supermarket worker who befriended teen girls on Snapchat and gave them lifts in his car before groping them and forcing them to touch his genitals has been found guilty of two counts of sexual assault.
Nathan Ross, 22, had denied both the charges, one of which related to a child aged between 13 and 16, and went on trial at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday.
The court heard that in 2019 Ross had used Snapchat’s automated “quick add” feature to connect with people he did not know personally and had then started communicating with the teens.
Both victims gave evidence from behind privacy screens and told the court that their first contact with Ross was via the social media app.
Under questioning by fiscal depute Ruaridh Allison the younger girl said that after the initial contact via Snapchat she and a friend met him for a day out in Inverness.
Shortly after that outing she had argued with her mother and had contacted Ross again to ask for a lift to her father’s house.
He expected something other than money
She said during the journey she told Ross that her father had set aside £10 to pay for his fuel – at which point Ross made it clear to her he expected something other than money in return for the lift.
“He had informed me that I needed to pay in another way,” she said, adding: “I agreed to kiss him.”
After stopping the car in a supermarket car park Ross kissed and groped the girl, grabbing her hand and head and pushing them towards his genitals.
“I grabbed his hand and told him not to,” she said.
Asked by defence solicitor John MacColl why she didn’t simply get out of the car in the car park and alert someone to her plight, she said “I didn’t know where I was”.
The second complainant, who also met Ross on Snapchat when she was under 18, told the court that she too had taken a lift from the defendant.
He made an unscheduled stop for food on their journey but in the fast food restaurant car park she said “his whole attitude changed”.
‘I don’t want to do this’
She said when he began to touch her leg and then her chest she told him that she didn’t like it.
“I said ‘I think it is time to go, I don’t want to do this’,” she said.
But her protestations were ignored by Ross, she explained.
“He just kept doing it, again and again, after I repeated myself three times he carried on doing it,” she said.
Eventually, Ross did drive her to her destination, but when they pulled up outside the address he grabbed her by the hand and forced her to touch his genitals.
“I said no and I thought that was clear enough,” she told the court. “I tried to take my hand away but he was stronger than me.”
Accused sought police ‘help’ after online accusation
The offences came to light after the younger victim made a social media post about her experiences.
It was seen by both the second victim, who was previously unknown to her, and Ross himself, who contacted the police for “help” after being sent screenshots of the accusation by friends.
Giving evidence in his own defence Ross said that he had given the younger girl a lift but denied there had been any physical contact between them, answering simply “yes” to a question of whether she was “making this up?”
He also denied ever having met the second witness.
Finding him guilty on both counts of sexual assault, Sheriff Sara Matheson told Ross, of Burgage Drive, Tain: “I believed both of the girls who gave evidence in court.”
Sentence was deferred for reports until November 2 and Ross was ordered to be placed on the sex offenders register with the length of registration to be determined at sentencing.