A COUNCILLOR branded ''utterly unconvincing'' by a sheriff who heard he was assaulted and robbed after rejecting an offer of gay sex has resigned as education convener.

Fraser Macpherson was criticised in the trial of a man accused of assaulting and robbing him, after admitting that he had given a false statement to the police and subsequently had tried to have the case thrown out.

Mr Macpherson, a married man and a justice of the peace, denied that he had been assaulted after entering Malthouse Close in the Nethergate area of Dundee for sex with a man he had never met before.

He said he had gone into the close to remonstrate with the man after being offered sex for money.

However, the Liberal Democrat councillor admitted that he had lied to police initially and that he had tried, in a letter to the procurator-fiscal's department, to have the case dropped, fearing the effect publicity might have on his wife and how the matter might be misconstrued.

Mr Macpherson, 41, was judged to be an ''utterly unconvincing witness'' by Sheriff Derek Pyle, who said that, on the basis that he did not accept the councillor's evidence, the charge of assault against Thomas Paterson, 20, of Balmoral Place, Dundee, could not be proved. However, he convicted Paterson on a separate charge of theft.