A former Inverness youth worker who secretly filmed a teenager as she was getting ready for bed has avoided jail.
Andrew Jessiman was also spotted performing a solo sex act in a room with the lights on and curtains open.
He was found guilty of voyeurism and public indecency following a trial at Inverness Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Gary Aitken spared the former youth worker jail, telling him: “I’m just persuaded that these matters can be dealt with by imposing a community payback order as a direct alternative to custody.”
Jessiman, 44, had denied both charges throughout the trial by jury.
But following two days of evidence, they took less than two hours to find Jessiman – who previously worked on projects including the Janny’s Hoose in Merkinch – guilty of both charges.
There was no suggestion during the trial that Jessiman’s crimes were committed during the course of his work.
In evidence led by fiscal depute Pauline Gair, the jury heard how police searching Jessiman’s home discovered a covert recording of a teenager taken through a window as she got ready for, and into, bed.
The grainy footage was shown to the jury during the trial and in her closing speech Mrs Gair reminded them: “The footage we saw yesterday was found on a device in a cupboard in the accused’s bedroom.”
The victim – aged over 16 at the time of the filming, which took place between September 2017 and September 2019 – was later traced by police.
‘Disgusting’ and ‘violating’
Jurors heard how she felt Jessiman’s actions were “disgusting” and “violating”.
The public indecency charge related to dates between 2016 and 2019 and detailed how Jessiman exposed his genitals and carried out a sex act on himself whilst naked in a room with the curtains open and the lights on.
One victim, who witnessed this when she was still a child, told the court that this was “gross behaviour”.
Taking to the witness box in his own defence, Jessiman said he had lost his job and his home as a result of the allegations and denied intentionally committing the acts.
In evidence led by defence counsel Kelly Duling, he said: “I’m acutely aware of how these allegations affect people and their lives – it has broken me.”
Under cross-examination Jessiman had told jurors: “I have no memory or recollection of making the film.”
However he conceded that he could have done it, adding: “It had no significance to me whatsoever.”
Former youth worker sex offender lost career
Speaking at the sentencing hearing, Ms Duling told the court her client had “lost his career, his home, his friends, his life” as a result of the allegations and subsequent conviction.
She said: “Mr Jessiman does grasp the serious impact.”
Ms Duling told Sheriff Gary Aitken that her client had no previous convictions and had been assessed of being of a “low likelihood of reconviction”.
Sheriff Aitken said: “In light of the evidence that we heard the verdict of the jury should hardly have come as a surprise.
“These are serious matters – regardless of what you may think to the contrary.”
He placed Jessiman on a community payback order with two years of supervision and a requirement that he complete the Moving Forward 2 Change programme for sex offenders.
Jessiman, of Upper Myrtlefield, Inverness, will also remain on the sex offenders register for two years.
The sheriff also ordered the forfeiture of the video camera.
