A sex attacker who assaulted two women as they enjoyed a Hogmanay party has lost in his appeal to strike out his conviction.
Jack Ferguson approached the two women at The Shed in Shawlands, Glasgow in the early hours of January 1 2020 and began dancing with them.
He then touched one of the women's buttocks before attempting to carry out a non-consensual sex act on the other.
The distressed women flagged Ferguson up to security staff, who identified him as having been ejected from the club earlier in the evening for being " quite drunk ".
The sex pest, who was 20-years-old and living in Dundee at the time of his court appearance, was found guilty of two sexual offences at Glasgow Sheriff Court on April 26 2021.
Ferguson was sentenced to 250 hours of unpaid work, three years supervision, a six month tagging order, and a requirement to undergo assessment for a sex offender rehab scheme.
He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for a period of five years following sentencing on May 24 2021.
However, lawyers acting on behalf of the pervert lodged an appeal against the conviction on the basis that the jury had not considered his intoxication level at the time.
They argued that Sheriff Martin Jones QC had not properly instructed jurors to consider whether Ferguson's actions had been "drink-fuelled rather than overtly sexual".
One of his victims had described Ferguson as showing "a merry happy level of intoxication" at the time of the assault.
But Crown lawyers shot back that Ferguson's motives would be considered sexual, regardless of his drunken state, if a "reasonable person" presented with the evidence reached the same conclusion - a caveat enshrined in Scots law.
Lord Doherty, hearing the appeal, said that Sheriff Jones QC's directions to the jury were "appropriate and sufficient", and that the jury had used "common sense and experience of life" to reach the guilty verdict.
In a written judgement, he summarised: "We do not find the distinction which the court drew between 'drink-fuelled' and 'overtly sexual' assaults helpful or illuminating in this context.
"The two categories are not mutually exclusive.
"Many sexual assaults are committed by assailants who are intoxicated to varying degrees with alcohol or drugs or both; and, in general, self-induced intoxication is no defence to a criminal charge.
"The challenge to the sheriff’s directions is ill-founded.
"There has not been a miscarriage of justice. The appeal is refused."
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