An Orkney man who video taped a drunken 13-year-old girl in a state of distress and then showed the film has been cleared of committing a crime, by appeal judges.

Three judges hit out at Lawrence Borwick’s behaviour as “highly reprehensible” but said he was not guilty of a breach of the peace.

He was found guilty of the charge at Kirkwall Sheriff Court in 1998, but Borwick, who was 28 at the time, challenged the conviction at the Justiciary Appeal Court in Edinburgh.

Borwick, of Torness, Papdale East, Kirkwall, was also convicted of supplying alcohol to several young girls. The appeal court ruled that his conviction on that offence should be limited only to supplying drink to the girl. He was originally sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, but his appeal against sentence has yet to be heard on the one charge now remaining against him.

Full story in next week's The Orcadian