Businessman accused of upskirting schoolgirl at Edinburgh Taylor Swift concert walks free from court
A businessman accused of upskirting a teenage schoolgirl at a Taylor Swift concert in Edinburgh has walked free from court after a not guilty verdict.
Andrew Hunter was alleged to have placed his mobile phone up the dress of the child and recorded her genitals or underwear at the gig at Murrayfield Stadium in June last year.
The girl claimed she had witnessed the 65-year-old recruitment consultant repeatedly drop his device on the ground underneath her with the camera app open.
She said Hunter had put the phone “under my skirt” and believed he was taking indecent images of her as she stood in the stands watching the US pop megastar.
The child said she had been left “slightly weirded out” by Hunter during the incident and claimed a married couple standing behind her and also seen what he was doing and had alerted security.
Hunter, denied the allegations stating the girl was “entirely wrong” about what had happened and that he had been using his phone to search for a lost £10 note.
He was arrested and charged with operating equipment beneath the clothing of a child with the intention of observing her genitals or underwear and stood trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday, September 19.
But Hunter, of Poulton Le Fylde, Lancashire, walked free from the dock when he was acquitted after a sheriff said he was “satisfied the case had not been proved beyond all reasonable doubt”.
Sheriff John Cook acknowledged Hunter had voluntarily handed over his phone to police at the time and no images of the child had been found following a forensic examination of the device.
The girl told the trial she had attended the Taylor Swift concert with friends on June 8 last year and was standing in the stadium’s East Stand when Hunter approached her.
She said he had engaged in conversation and near the end of the concert she saw him dropping his red Android phone on the ground under her on three occasions.
She said: “He dropped his phone under me and bent down to pick it up. He was putting it under my skirt with the camera facing up. I saw him do it a few times but I didn’t think anything of it. When I saw him do it again I said to my friend I wanted to move.”
The child said a couple behind them had seen what was happening and “called us over” to stand with them before seeking out a security guard.
The court heard Hunter was interviewed by police officers and he had voluntarily handed his phone over but no images of the girl were discovered on the device.
Hunter, who is also a director of a car sales company, told the trial he had travelled to Edinburgh from his home and was planning on meeting up with a young relative inside the stadium.
He said it was the schoolgirl and her friend who had approached him and at one point in the evening, and after leaving to buy food he had noticed he had lost a £10 note.
.jpeg?trim=0,0,0,0&crop=&width=640&quality=65)
The Irish national admitted dropping his phone near to the girl on one occasion but vehemently denied he had used the mobile device to record her.
He said: “I retraced my steps and was using the torch on my phone to look for the money. The phone fell out of my hand and it never dropped out of my hand more than once.
“Never in a million years would I do such a thing. She is mistaken, she had gotten it all wrong. I would never do that in my entire life.”
US mega star Taylor Swift played three sold out concerts to a total of 220,000 delighted fans at the national rugby stadium in the capital last year. Fans travelled from across the globe to catch the Shake It Off singer in action and it is believed Hunter was the only arrest over the three nights.
Following the gigs in Scotland Swift took to Instagram to thank her legions of fans for the welcome they put on for her.
She posted: “Edinburgh - you truly blew me away this weekend. Thank you for breaking the all-time attendance record for a stadium show in Scotland three times in a row and for all the ways you made us feel right at home. Love you, all 220,000 of you.”