It was in his own room, no one else was involved so let him get on with it.

Harsh that they opened up the door and found him, but the door was locked. I dont actually see where the crime is?? :you_crazy

What difference is it to knocking one out yourself? Yeah a pushbike was involved, that was what he chose to use. Would he still have been done if it was a blow up doll?

You’ll get locked up for having a hard-on in your own bedroom soon.

Most of us should be in the sex offenders register then.. :weee:

That’s so crazy :you_crazy

What people do in their own home shouldn’t be anybody’s business, unless we talk about real crime of course..(murder,child abuse etc)

World’s gone crazy :you_crazy

I think its a bit more complicated than it first seems.

it wasn’t so much his “own home” that he had freehold of but a council housing hostel.

For him to get nicked in this manner it would appear that he lives there under a contract which allows the cleaners to enter at any time (including using duplicate keys) and who act under the authority of whoever really owns the hostel, and who have been encouraged or to scrutinise the activities of the hostel users.

this is more about the Scottish society saying “if you get a house from the public purse we control what you can do inside it” and enforcing traditional moral codes – I get the impression Scotland is bitterly divided between those who are very liberal and those with conservative views, and this is an incident of people using their power in the marketplace to enforce moral codes.

I’m not an expert on Scots law (which is different even to English law) but this seems like a worrying test case for all Scots living in rented/social accomodation, whether or not they wish to commit potentially lewd acts with bicycles.

I recon there is a lot more behinds the surface to this –

they prob wanted to nick him or ‘do’ him for other reasons (no evidence etc) and just used this …..

I agree. I reckon he’s been pissing off the hostel management in some way or another..maybe he was known or suspected for other, more serious sexually deviant antics but either as TG says there was no evidence or Scots law/court reporting rules means the media can’t mention this for some reason…

I don’t know the exact rules in these places but I’m sure it isn’t that normal to open private rooms with master keys unless one of the bosses authorises this.

And how many cleaners does it usually take to clean a hostel room? Surely one is normally sufficient? IMO this sounds like this was a planned operation and they went in some number so there would be enough of them to

1] deal with him if he kicks off
2] be able to provide enough evidence in Court so its not just one persons word against another

there is often a bit of a “siege mentality” in this places (clients vs staff) and something like this is also clearly a way of showing him “who has the power…”

jesus almighty what is the world coming to…:you_crazy

the ruling is excessive (I expect in England someone would only get an £80 fine and even if they did it in full view of the street!) but it doesn’t matter how much us sassenachs whinge, the system has used its power and it has won. is name is all over the papers as a sex offender now and that stigma will never leave him.

The bigger issue which is probably being overlooked by the media and many observers is that its appears to be a precedent case for Scotland that it is OK for cleaners or other staff in hostels to override residents right to privacy.

It just shows the sheer power of property ownership, and the level of the “moral backlash” developing across Europe.

After all the courts had the option to hand down a lesser penalty, or the OB could have just given him a caution/reprimand which (in England at least) means the case is not relased to the media.

OTOH I bet a laird in his castle can do whatever he wants with his own bike and not get in a jot of trouble.

This was from the Torygraph (via google)

This isn’t reported in other sources – I expect they were getting back at him for kicking off at the staff. Legally dubious but these days everyone will use whatever power they can put their hands on

with a pair he would have got in less trouble in the first place :laugh_at:(sorry, couldn’t resist it..)