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Highland bar manager found guilty of teen sex assault





The jury found Van Der Schyff guilty on a majority verdict.
The jury found Van Der Schyff guilty on a majority verdict.

A JURY has convicted a bar manager of sexually assaulting a teenager after she fell asleep at his flat during a party.

Andries Van Der Schyff (33) claimed the woman, who was 19 at the time of the alleged offence, had consented to what happened between them.

But the jury of 10 women and three men didn’t believe him and after a three-day trial at Inverness Sheriff Court returned a majority verdict of guilty.

The court had heard that Van Der Schyff and colleagues from Johnnie Foxes bar and The Den had been out celebrating a staff member’s birthday on the night of December 2, 2012.

They returned to his flat and the teenager, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, fell asleep on the sofa bed.

Giving evidence, the girl broke down in tears as she described how she woke up to find Van Der Schyff removing her jeans and underwear.

She admitted she was drunk and had visited several pubs with her friends before arriving back at a flat in Tomnahurich Street in the early hours on December 3.

She woke on a sofa bed to find all the other party-goers had left.

She said she awoke to find her trousers and underwear were being removed by a man she barely knew.

The woman admitted she was drunk adding: "I don’t really remember anything from the party being in full swing until waking up and there was no one else there but him."

She said he touched her inappropriately and this went on for a minute.

She had fallen asleep fully clothed beside another woman who was also at the party. The other woman had left earlier.

She said she left the sofa bed and went into the bathroom. She then returned to collect her underwear and her handbag before leaving the flat.

Once outside, she called a friend who had been at the party and asked her to pick her up.

"I broke down," said the woman. "I was a bit hysterical on the phone. I asked her to come and get me."

She contacted the police the following day after she broke down in tears at work and told colleagues what had happened.

Cross-examined by defence solicitor Neil Wilson she denied that she had done something foolish because of her drunken state and she was ashamed.

She also denied that she had taken her clothes off herself and that she had consented to the contact with Van Der Schyff.

Van Der Schyff (33), now of King Street, Inverness, denied sexually assaulting the woman while she was incapable of giving her consent.

Detective Constable Peter Dingwall (43) took a statement from Van Der Schyff at Burnett Road Police Station on December 6.

In the statement, Van Der Schyff said after some of the party guests left he went for cigarettes. He returned to the flat and the woman was asleep on the sofa bed which was in the couch position.

"I woke her as I had to dismantle the bed so I could go to bed as well," he told officers.

He said he climbed into bed and the woman turned towards him.

"She looked at me and touched me," said Van Der Schyff in his statement.

He added the woman removed her underwear herself and the events that followed were with her consent.

As she left the flat Van Der Schyff said she hugged him and kissed him on the neck.

He said: "It did happen obviously. I now regret it. It shouldn’t have. But it happened. I did nothing wrong. I did not force anything on her. She didn’t say stop."

Sentence was deferred until June 17 for criminal justice social work reports and Van Der Schyff was placed on the Sex Offenders Register.


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