Avonbridge sex offender drives his car into a wall and delays sentencing for sexual assault on 14-year-old girl

Brian Mulgrew (57), a surveyor by trade, was due to appear at Stirling Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting the 14-year-old girl, making sexual remarks to her, and giving her alcohol.

Simon Hutchison, defence solicitor, said he received a call from police saying his client Mulgrew, Hareburn Avenue, Avonbridge, had been involved in a road accident “somewhere about Linlithgow” and had been taken to the Forth Valley Royal Hospital.

He said he had been told Mulgrew’s condition was “stable”.

The incident happened on the A706 road to Garage House in Linlithgow just after 9am on Wednesday.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: “It looks as though the male driver has taken ill behind the wheel and then collided with a wall.”

In Mulgrew’s absence Sheriff Wyllie Robertson further deferred sentence on him to July 17.

At an earlier appearance, the court heard Mulgrew drove the 14-year-old to the Avonbridge Community Hall, in Blackstone Road, in the middle of the night on May 25 last year after buying her and some of her friends a carry-out of alcoholic drinks.

The girl, who cannot be identified, knew Mulgrew had some responsibility for running the hall and thought he was just going to pick something up.

He pulled her top down and sexually assaulted her, telling her to pretend he was her boyfriend.

Miss Clark said: “She told him to stop and called him a creep and a paedo. He attempted to kiss her on the lips. He then ceased his actions and said, ‘I’m only kidding, hen’.”

Mulgrew then dropped his victim off with some of her other friends, and she told them, and later her mother, what had happened.

He later admitted giving the girl a lift.

He told police: “She was good looking and had big breasts.”

Officers found CCTV footage of Mulgrew driving into the car park with the girl.

The court heard he had a previous conviction for a sexual offence in 1989 and he had been warned prior to his non-appearance on Wednesday that a custodial sentence was “more than likely.”