Selkirk man put on sex offenders' register over bedroom attack

A man convicted of assaulting a woman by stripping her of her underwear while she was drunk has been ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid community work and put on the sex offenders' register for the next year.
Anderson Road in Selkirk.Anderson Road in Selkirk.
Anderson Road in Selkirk.

Andrew Wiseman, 56, carried out that attack on the woman, now 29, as she lay face down in a state of intoxication on a bed in his Anderson Road home in Selkirk in December 2016.

Wiseman pleaded not guilty, claiming to have been acting as a good Samaritan by removing her underwear and leggings too, but he was convicted of assault following a three-day jury trial last month.

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Sentencing was deferred after that trial for background reports.

At his sentencing hearing at Jedburgh Sheriff Court last Thursday, procurator fiscal Tessa Bradley said: “The accused admitted that he pulled off the complainant’s leggings and underwear.

“The leggings, he maintains, was deliberate, and the underpants came off unintentionally with the leggings.

“He continues to maintain that he did it for her welfare, to prevent her from overheating in her drunken state in a duvet.”

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Allegations that he sexually assaulted her and carried out a sex act on himself in her presence, all with intent to rape, were deleted from the charge against him by jurors.

Sheriff Kevin Drummond told Wiseman that he could have been facing a custodial sentence had it not been for those deletions.

“He was convicted of removing the leggings and underwear,” said Mr Drummond.

“In those circumstances, what remains is undoubtedly an indecent assault.”

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