A 16-year-old girl fought for her life after being abducted in Arbroath by a creepy stranger who refused to let her go.
Thomas Thyne approached the girl on a street and grabbed her after saying he had “smoked three joints and tanked a few cans”.
The “petrified” youngster later suffered a panic attack.
Two hours earlier, Thyne harassed a “frightened” mum and her six-year-old son outside the Saltire Centre.
Questions have been raised about whether there was a significant sexual element to the offender’s bizarre behaviour, requiring registration as a sex offender.
“Don’t be under any illusions,” Sheriff Paul Ralph told Thyne, who is remanded at HMP Perth.
“It’s almost inevitable that you are going to receive a custodial sentence.”
Followed mum and son
Dundee Sheriff Court heard how the 36-year-old has minor previous convictions for theft and breach of the peace.
At around 8.30pm on August 18 last year, his first victim got off a bus with her son and noticed Thyne, a stranger, sitting alone in the Saltire playpark.
He began to follow them, speaking “gibberish” to himself, said fiscal depute Rachel Hill.
“The accused walked extremely close behind the witness for a short period of time until she entered a public footpath towards her home.
“The accused asked her ‘what one of these houses are yours?’
“She was frightened by the accused and did not want him to know where she lived so she pretended she was only in the area to drop something off to a friend.”
Thyne asked for her number before taking out his phone and asked her to type her name into Facebook.
The woman held her young son’s hand continually and walked away from Thyne but he refused to leave her alone.
She managed to return home safely after she sought help from a neighbour.
Creep accosted teenager
Just after 10pm, the teenage girl was walking home when she spotted Thyne in the same street “randomly screaming f*** off”.
She walked quickly to pass him but the creep offered her a bite of the hot dog he was clutching.
Ms Hill said: “She formed the opinion the accused was under the influence of something and he then told her that he had smoked three joints and tanked a few cans.”
Thyne asked if she had any weed and if he could wipe his ketchup-soaked hands on her.
Matters grew increasingly sinister as he stroked her back repeatedly from her shoulder to her waist for about 10 seconds.
“The accused said to her ‘you can come home with me’, which made her feel really uncomfortable,” the prosecutor said.
“The witness told him to stop touching her and he stated ‘I won’t tell a soul’.”
The girl repeatedly tried to make her way home but Thyne blocked her path.
Dragged along path
She heard a car engine and Thyne shouted, “it’s the police” before he grabbed her from behind in a bearhug.
Ms Hill said: “She describes that he locked his arms together by holding his elbows and started dragging her along the path.
“She began to struggle, resist and scream feeling petrified. The accused continued to drag her for at least 30 seconds whilst she continued to resist and scream.
“She finally managed to slip out from the accused’s grip and began to run away from him.”
The girl ran and began to have a panic attack, before managing to reach her home.
Police later found Thyne sleeping on a couch in his mother’s house and was noted to be “difficult” and “belligerent”.
Significant sexual element?
Thyne pled guilty to abusive behaviour, assault and abduction charges.
Solicitor David Sinclair said a psychiatric report had been prepared.
Sheriff Ralph said: “The offence jumps off the page that there is a sexual element – the question whether it’s significant.
“There’s not enough in the offences as narrated at this stage that I would make a determination without knowing more about Mr Thyne.”
Sentence was deferred until April for a further report to be prepared, with the defence and the Crown to make submissions on the question of a significant sexual element.
The sheriff told Thyne: “These offences are despicable.
“You harassed not one but two females, including a 16-year-old to the point you dragged her towards bushes where she may have had no idea what may or may not happen.”
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