A pervert driving instructor who sexually abused 14 of his young female students while they were behind the wheel of his car was today facing years in jail.
Neil Addison was locked up after a jury found him unanimously guilty of all the charges he faced of carrying out sex attacks on young women in the Fife area over the course of more than three years.
A four-day trial at Dundee Sheriff Court heard from a string of young women who told strikingly similar stories of starting lessons with “friendly” Addison – only for him to begin groping them a few weeks into their tuition.
On many of the girls he would begin by touching them just above the knee – what he described to police as a “reassuring pat” – and over the course of future lessons he began “squeezing” higher and higher.
Several girls told how he ended up with his hand wedged between their legs. One said she could feel his pinkie “wiggling” over her private parts.
But he denied all the charges against him and forced 14 young women to give “distressing” evidence over the course of a four day trial.
A jury took just one hour and 45 minutes to find him unanimously guilty of all the charges.
Sheriff Tom Hughes remanded Addison in custody pending sentencing next month and told him: “These young women were confined in a car with you at a time when they looked to you for assistance.
“For several weeks you ingratiated yourself to them then as time went on you took more and more liberties with them.
“Heaven knows what would have happened had this gone untraced.”
The sheriff also praised Addison’s victims, adding: “Each and every one of them can take pride from the fact they came to court and gave evidence in a dignified fashion and must take some consolation that the jury have found each and every one of them truthful.”
Addison, 55, of Holly Park, Cupar, Fife, denied a total of 15 charges on indictment, allegedly committed between June 2014 and August 2017 during car journeys across north east Fife.
One of the charges was withdrawn at the end of the Crown case after the court heard the alleged victim emigrated to Australia.
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