A Scottish male stripper has been convicted of sexual assault after a court determined he failed to get consent before performing ‘simulated oral sex’ on a client and for ‘touching her breasts’ during a paid routine.
Stuart Kennedy, who lives in Bridge of Don, Aberdeen, was officially placed on the Sex Offenders Register after jurors found him guilty of ‘jiggling’ a bride-to-be’s breasts without her agreement.
Although she declined to be involved several times, her sisters secretly organized the $500 booking. Feeling pressured, she eventually took part despite her reservations.
“The door burst open and slammed hard against the opposite wall,” she told the court. “A man dressed in a firefighter’s uniform came in. I decided I had to grin and bear it and go through it. It’s not my preference, that kind of activity.”
She also testified that she broke down crying and began to panic in front of her 15 friends, explaining that she tried to make it clear to Kennedy that she was not a ‘willing participant’, according to the Daily Record.
During her testimony at Perth Sheriff Court, she described how the 42-year-old performer ‘forced his hands between her thighs’ and that his ‘first move was to make [her] simulate giving him oral sex’.
“There was more grinding against my thigh. I was trying to keep my legs together.”
According to the woman, Kennedy then came up from behind her and ‘grabbed both [her] breasts and jiggled them about’. Kennedy denied this, insisting that if her breasts moved, it was only because of his routine to Village People’s ‘YMCA’.
One of her sisters, who had helped organize the party, supported him by telling police she had ‘enjoyed’ the show and did not recall anything unusual that would have been unexpected from a stripper at such an event.
However, another sister told the court she regretted booking him, saying: “He stood her up at one point and reached around and grabbed her boobs aggressively.”
“Witnesses spoke of being taken aback by what happened. There was the complainer’s evidence of immediate distress that brought the whole show to an end,” the sheriff remarked. “I do not accept that he could have had a reasonable belief that he had consent. It was clear she was deeply uncomfortable with the performance.”
“Nothing could have given him the impression she consented to being touched in that manner. His activity towards the complainer from when she sat in the chair in the middle of the room was plainly sexual.”
“I am not satisfied he took any reasonable steps to ascertain consent was continuing throughout his performance,” Reid added, calling the guilty verdict a ‘narrow decision’.
Prosecutors stated that if Kennedy had obtained consent, there would have been no crime committed.
The court was also told that he had a previous conviction for a very similar offense. When confronted about this by the prosecution, he insisted: “It was widely reported. If anything, it boosted things.”
Because of that earlier conviction, the judge warned him that a prison sentence was now a real possibility.
