A PERVERT who sexually assaulted a young mum at Saltcoats train station while pretending to be an undercover cop has been put on the sex offenders’ register and could face jail.

Alan Gilmour, 46, of McIsaac Road in Saltcoats, put his hands up the woman’s skirt and felt her leg and private parts while claiming to be working undercover in the early hours of July 17.

The 46-year-old appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court where he denied the charges. 

The court heard the victim was out with friends at Bar One in Saltcoats on the evening of July 16. On leaving the pub a few hours later, she found the nearby taxi rank to be busy and so left her friends to walk across to the station, where she tried to flag down a taxi. 

Gilmour followed the woman and sat beside her on the platform and told her that he was an undercover police officer. He also knew the woman’s name even though she did not know him. 

The victim told the court Gilmour put his hand on her leg as if he was trying to comfort her. Gilmour then moved his hand up the woman’s thigh and she tried to push him away because she “knew it wasn’t friendly”.

He forced his hand up further and put his hand on her underwear. At that point, the woman’s sister and male friend arrived and both confronted Gilmour, who became aggressive and told them he was a policeman.

A witness told the court the victim was “very upset and started to cry and was screaming that she had been touched”. He added: “She was hysterical at that point and said she had been assaulted and violated.”

The court heard from another witness that following the incident in the station, Gilmour walked away towards the taxi rank, where he asked if everyone was OK. and said he was an undercover police officer. 

The court also heard that Gilmour approached the victim’s friend aggressively and was nose-to-nose with him before swearing at him calling him a “p****” and a “b******” and claiming again to be a policeman working undercover.

The court was shown CCTV footage taken at the station in the early hours of July 17, which showed Gilmour following the woman onto the platform and sitting down beside her. 

He claimed that the woman had fallen in the taxi rank and that she was “lying on the ground for eight minutes unconscious”, adding that people at the taxi rank were “accusing me of being a police officer and said I should be helping that girl”. 

He added: “She was very ill and there was nobody to help. One guy approached me who had a lot of drink in him. 

“Because I served with the Scottish Marine Guards for four years I thought I should use some of the tactics so I put my arm out for a taxi but they drove past.”

Gilmour then referred to the scene at the train station. He claimed that he saw the woman walking along the edge of the platform “very dangerously” and that she again fell down unconscious. 

When Gilmour’s solicitor, Simon Brown, put to his client that there was no evidence on the CCTV film of the woman falling, he said: “I think she fainted. She was lying on the ground. 

“I was myself and I was getting pretty afraid. I knelt down. I had my phone out, my hand was shaking. I did not touch that girl. 

“I had only been there for a very short time. I realised she was unconscious. There was no conversation with this girl because she was unconscious. She was unaware that I was there. It was good that I was there because she received a very bad head injury.”

When the fiscal pointed out that the victim could not recall hitting her head, nor had any such accident been mentioned by any witnesses in court, Gilmour replied: “She was dramatised. She must not remember it.”

Gilmour also claimed that when he was with the victim on the platform he was approached by “a really, really big man with long brown hair and big shoulders and denim shoes” who he claimed aggressively said: “Leave it to me, I’ll deal with it.”

Mr Brown told his client that “there didn’t seem to be a man on his own with long hair in the CCTV”, Gilmour changed the subject. 
He said: “I’ve got quite a lot of First Aid because I was in the cadets for years. She was in a bad situation.”

Gilmour denied impersonating a police officer, claiming that other people had assumed he was an undercover cop “because I was wearing a white shirt and a black jacket”. 

Sheriff David Hall told Gilmour that he had “no hesitation” in finding him guilty of “two very serious charges”, that he had “a significant record” and that he had recently served a custodial sentence for another matter. 

Sheriff Hall deferred sentence for reports, but imposed a Restriction of Liberty Order, revoked his bail, and ordered him to be placed on the sex offenders’ register. 

Gilmour will return to court in  January for sentencing.