A high school teacher has been convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl on two occasions.
One incident occurred in Cameron Montgomery’s Fife home when they sat on a sofa watching movies together.
Montgomery, 28, was formerly a modern studies teacher at Beath High School, in Cowdenbeath, as well as an exam marker for the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
He has now been put on the sex offenders register.
He was convicted after a four-day jury trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.
Montgomery, of Farm Road, Crombie, was found guilty of an offence that on February 17 and June 21 last year at Crossford and at his home, he sexually assaulted a girl then aged 15 years old by repeatedly touching and rubbing her leg.
The victim was known to Montgomery but was not one of his pupils.
The girl said in her evidence that she had gone to Montgomery’s home for a movie night.
They had been sitting next to each other on the sofa when Montgomery started to touch and grope her leg moving up to her thigh.
She said she “just sat there” and could not believe what Montgomery was doing when he started feeling her leg. It lasted for ten minutes and she told him to stop.
She said that Montgomery had told her he had “wanted to do it for a while” and later made her “pinkie promise” not to tell anyone.
She that Montgomery asked her if there was anything he could do “to make up for it”.
She said that afterwards Montgomery had driven her home and told her not to speak about what had happened.
That night she contacted a friend, who is the same age, asking her to go over to the house even though it was about 10pm.
She told the girl what had happened and the friend confirmed this in her evidence.
The victim did not tell family members until they were on holiday together in England the following month.
The family reported the matter to the police and the holiday was cut short.
The initial incident took place in his car when he stopped to charge it up in Crossford. He claimed he only “scratched her head in a comforting way” as she seemed to be tired.
They had been returning from attending a gig together in Glasgow.
The girl said he had been groping her leg but she tried to put it out of her mind until the second incident occurred in the house.
In the second incident, he said he similarly scratched her leg to comfort her as they watched a movie.
He denied any of the sexual allegations took place, saying, “absolutely not”.
He claimed that during the movie night the girl had told him she had been sexually assaulted by someone she knew.
He said she did not name the person involved.
At one point, the sheriff warned Montgomery about making negative comments about the girl after he had spoken about her having a “toxic” home life.
Montgomery was tearful in court ahead of the guilty verdict being delivered.
Sheriff Susan Duff called for reports and put Montgomery on the sex offenders register. Bail was granted and sentencing will take place on October 7.
Share