A SALTCOATS man who held his phone over a toilet cubicle in Irvine as a teenager was urinating has returned to court to find out his fate.

And Kevin Nugent was admonished - the legal equivalent of a slap on the wrists - after a sheriff was told he had stayed out of trouble.

The 42-year-old had been accused of a sexual offence of voyeurism by allegedly trying to take pictures of the teen - who was aged 16 at the time - at the toilets in the Rivergate Shopping Centre on October 31, 2020.

He denied the allegation but was found guilty of a reduced charge of committing a breach of the peac by holding his phone over the toilet cubicle.

When Nugent returned to Kilmarnock Sheriff Court for sentencing on Thursday [May 11] defence solicitor Simon Brown told the hearing that his client had been of good behaviour since his conviction late last year.

The procurator fiscal depute confirmed the Crown had received no further reports of criminality.

Sheriff Murdoch MacTaggart admonished and dismissed Nugent, and he was allowed to leave.

The trial, which began in August, had heard how three youngsters were in the toilets next to the centre's  multi-storey car park – with no one else present other than the accused.

After one of the boys alerted security, the trial heard the youngsters made comments like ‘beast’ and ‘paedo’ while following Nugent towards the nearby Asda store and then to his car.

Mr Brown had suggested to the witnesses that they made up their story to cover up their own "bad behaviour", alleging they had been abusive to the accused in the toilets. 

When asked back in August why they followed Nugent after the ‘weird’ incident, the complainer replied “we wanted to see where he went", adding, “You’re not going to be happy, are you?”

He said: “If we didn’t see where he went, he could have just got away with it.”

When the trial resumed on December 12 last year, a third witness and Nugent himself took the stand.

The victim’s friend, now aged 18, said: “We all went to the toilet together - [the complainer] went in the cubicle.

"At the urinal I seen a phone going over into the cubicle," he added, saying it was "pointing down, definitely".

He added: “You see a phone, you think surely they are taking a pic. You can’t guarantee it, but it was pretty weird.”

The witness denied having been abusive towards Nugent before he entered the toilet cubicle, but admitted the group had used the words "beast" or "paedo" while pursuing him.

Nugent claimed he was on his phone standing by the sink when the boys came in.

He said: “They made comments on how I looked. That I look like a beast. I didn’t make any comments and went into the cubicle.

“I didn’t hear specifically but it was words like ‘beast’."

He told the court the group had stated: "I know you took a pic."

Under questioning from procurator fiscal depute Jade Podlesny, Nugent said: “They were quite cheeky. I thought I better get away in the toilet then leave.”

He described the boys as "looking quite agitated" as he left the toilets.

When asked why he thought they were agitated, he replied: "Because that [having taken pictures] was the assumption, the accusation."

When Ms Podlesny put it to Nugent that he did hold his phone over the cubicle, he replied: “No, not at all.”