A COMMONWEALTH Games weightlifter has been cleared of sexually assaulting a man in a supermarket toilet.
Toua Udia, 22, denied touching the man inappropriately at Tesco on Dalmarnock Road in Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, on July 21.
At the end of a two-day trial, Sheriff Martin Jones said he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the Crown had proved the case against Mr Udia, who is from Papua New Guinea, and acquitted him with a not proven verdict.
Speaking afterwards, Ian Moir, Mr Udia's lawyer, said: "Mr Udia has maintained his innocence throughout and is delighted with the outcome of the case.
"He now wishes to put this behind him and is looking forward to returning to see his family."
In evidence on Monday, Mr Udia's accuser told Glasgow Sheriff Court the athlete touched his testicles while he was helping him strap an ice pack to his leg.
Earlier yesterday morning the court heard from Crown witness Graham Buchanan, a security guard at Tesco, who said a man came up to him in the store and told him a male athlete had touched him in the toilets.
He said the angry man pointed out Mr Udia, who was wearing a tracksuit in his country's colours. Mr Buchanan told the court Mr Udia looked "calm and relaxed" and his demeanour did not change when he told him there had been a complaint about him, and he remained "relaxed".
Asked in court what Mr Udia's response was, Mr Buchanan said he seemed to know something had happened, but did not comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article