Edinburgh stables owner convicted of sexually assaulting women at his livery farms

Campbell Taylor carried out vile sex attacks on the victims and made sick comments to a fourth woman about her breasts while she was horse riding, all at his livery yards in Edinburgh.

Taylor, 49, denied any wrongdoing claiming the incidents took place amid a culture of “practical jokes” and “horseplay” among employees at the farms he owned and worked at.

But the business owner, from the capital’s Balerno, was found guilty on Thursday of seven sexual offences by a sheriff following a four day trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court this week.

Taylor has now been placed on the sex offenders register and could be banned from working with children and vulnerable adults after the court ordered his name be passed to Scottish Ministers.

Taylor is currently listed as a company director with horse share farms Pentland Ponies and Castlemains Farm in East Lothian where members of the public are offered the opportunity to “own a horse without all the commitment and expense”.

The trial heard from four women who said Taylor had targeted them while they were either working at or visiting Midkinleith and Rosebank Farms at Currie in Edinburgh between 2009 and 2019.

Campbell Taylor, 49, pictured outside Edinburgh Sheriff Court. | Alexander Lawrie

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The women said Taylor had assaulted them by unclipping their bras, pulling their trousers down to expose their underwear, and two said he struck them with a horse whip. He also sexually assaulted one victim during shopping trips to a Tesco in Galashiels in 2011 and the capital’s Hermiston Gait retail park in 2019.

The woman said Taylor pulled down her trousers exposing her underwear and attempted to remove her upper clothing exposing her bra during the incidents.

Prosecutor Corrie Laouadie said in his closing speech Taylor had carried out “a systematic” course of abusive conduct and had held “some position of power over each of these women”.

Mr Laouadie added: “The accused has repeatedly, both advertently and discreetly, invaded their personal sexual autonomy without their consent. This is conduct carried out over a long period.”

Solicitor Dan Cameron there had been “a culture of practical jokes” at the farms and the “childish pranks” such as unclipping the women’s bras and hitting them with a horse whip should not be considered as sexual assaults.

In summing up, Sheriff Dickson said he found one victim had been “whipped on several occasions including on the backside” while a second woman he said had been “a particularly impressive witness”.

The sheriff said: “This case comes on the credibility and reliability of various witnesses and the application of the Moorov doctrine. I considered the witness in charge seven was a particularly impressive witness and gave clear evidence of the circumstances of that charge.

“All the female witnesses in the remaining charges were similar regarding the circumstances. When I considered the evidence as a whole I considered all the main witnesses were credible and reliable.”

Taylor was placed on the sex offenders register on an interim basis and sentence was deferred for social work reports and restriction of liberty order assessment to be prepared to next month.

Taylor and his partner Louise Drysdale, 30, were acquitted of a charge of neglecting children they were looking after by leaving them alone in a car and allowing them to roam around a yard while horses were loose.

He was also cleared of an allegation of animal cruelty by herding horses with his car and to striking the animals with an unknown implement between 2016 and 2022.