Swedish superstar DJ Basshunter has been cleared of sexually assaulting two women in a Fife nightclub.
Sheriff Maxwell Hendry branded the alleged victims neither credible nor reliable and said their evidence had been “riddled with inconsistencies and improbabilities.”
Announcing his verdict on Tuesday following a two-day trial at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, the sheriff also accused the women of using the time between leaving Kitty McGuinty’s in Kirkcaldy and giving their statements to police to collude with one another.
Basshunter, whose real name is Jonas Altberg, said it felt great to be acquitted as he swept out of the court and into a waiting car.
Altberg, of Halmstad, Sweden, had denied that on December 10 at Kitty’s he assaulted a woman by seizing her by the hair and forcing her towards his private parts. The 26-year-old also denied that on the same night in the Hunter Street premises he sexually assaulted a different woman by seizing her by the hair, forcing her head towards his private parts, seizing her by the body and forcing her to bend over.
The charge continued that he pulled up the woman’s dress, seized hold of her underwear and pulled it upwards, thereby exposing her private parts, and slapped her on the body.
The two women, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had told the court the DJ had made a sexual comment to them before grabbing them by the hair and pushing their heads towards his crotch as they posed for a picture with him.
One of them claimed he also grabbed her underwear to expose her buttocks and slapped her backside.
However, CCTV footage showed the pair had only been with Altberg, who had been performing at the club, for a matter of seconds and had been smiling and laughing as they walked away from him. They then contacted a daily newspaper before reporting the incident to the police, and later received £100 from the paper for their story.
“Their behaviour in posing for photographs seconds after a lewd comment is alleged to have been made, leaving smiling after an alleged sexual assault, remaining in the premises to buy more drink, and failing to contact the relevant authorities after they left means I cannot accept their evidence as credible or reliable,” said the sheriff.
Altberg told the court he could remember little of the night in question and did not recall the women who accused him.
“I don’t remember specifically what happened but the only way I would do that is if they did something to me first,” he said. “Something might have happened but not in the way they described it. It’s either made up or they’re over-excited or something.”
Finding Altberg not guilty, Sheriff Hendry told him, “This is not a court of morality. Your behaviour in the future is entirely a matter for you.”