Sheriff slams drunk bus pest

Nov 13 2009 by Stephen Robertson, Stirling Observer Friday

A MAN who pestered an 18-year-old girl on a bus in Stirling was put on probation this week.

Stirling Sheriff Court heard on Wednesday that John Millar (43) was under the influence of drink when he began speaking to the girl at a bus stop in the city’s Murray Place on September 17.

Depute fiscal Hayley Greene said: “It was 7.20pm and the witness was waiting for a bus when she was approached by the accused who asked her if she knew a football score.”

Millar then asked the woman to sit beside him on the bus but she told him to leave her alone.

Once on the bus the woman sat down herself but was soon joined by Millar. Ms Greene added: “He placed an arm around her and asked if she was all right.”

At this point the woman spoke to the bus driver, who contacted the police.

The fiscal depute said: “Police attended and spoke to the com-plainer, who was crying and visibly upset.

Millar, of Coblebrook Place, Alva, pleaded guilty to the breach of the peace. His lawyer Virgil Crawford said that Millar had been drinking on the night in question.

He continued: “He accepts that he went to speak to her. He rightly or wrongly got the impression that the girl was upset.

“It may well have been that she was apprehensive of him but he thought that she was upset.

“He thought that he was showing concern for this girl but, from her point of view, he accepts that she didn’t know who he was and that it caused her alarm and upset.”

Mr Crawford added that there was never any suggestion that the incident had any sexual element to it.

Sheriff Andrew Cubie put Millar on probation for a year and told him: “This was a self-absorbed, selfish and anti-social way of behaving.

“The witness had made it plain to you that she didn’t want to speak to you.”