A drunken reveller’s “Gangnam Style” defence failed to impress a sheriff.
Derek Kerr claimed that he inadvertently groped two young ladies while mimicking the “horse-riding” dance moves made famous by the novelty song.
The 36-year-old was found guilty of sexually assaulting the two friends while they enjoyed a night out at the Gig club in Blairgowrie on October 13 last year.
A trial before Sheriff Eric Brown heard how the pair had tried desperately to escape his unwanted advances, but he followed them across the crowded dance floor.
One of the women told Perth Sheriff Court that Kerr failed to heed their repeated pleas to “back off”.
She said: “I just felt someone banging into me and trying to get close to us.
“When I saw it was him, I just said ‘Leave us alone’, but after that he kept trying to grind against us and getting really close, like dirty dancing.”
The final straw came when she was sent stumbling across the dance floor.
Although Sheriff Brown accepted that was not Kerr’s fault and he had been pushed by an unknown party into the woman, a doorman from the Gig ejected him and called for the police.
They interviewed the shocked young woman and she gave a statement that the accused had “rubbed her left breast”.
The second witness also told the court that she saw Kerr with his hand on her friend’s chest and revealed that she had her own run-in with him.
She had been on the dance floor when she felt someone grab her leg, running his hand from her knee to her thigh.
“He didn’t get that far up my thigh because I realised what was going on,” she said.
“I felt absolutely disgusted because I didn’t give him any indication that his attention was welcome.”
Giving evidence, Kerr, of Keathbank Court in Rattray, admitted he had been under the influence of alcohol, but denied targeting the two friends, saying they were just “faces in the crowd”.
He defended his actions, saying: “Some people might not have said it was dancing, but I was doing my best. The Gangnam Style song was on and I was doing the horse-riding moves, as well as jumping up and down.”
Kerr was found guilty of sexually assaulting the two women by grinding his body against theirs, as well as touching one on the breast and rubbing the other’s thigh.
Sentence was deferred until March 11 for reports and he was placed on the Sex Offenders Register.