A golf club boss from Glenrothes who told a teenager players would not be able to keep their eyes off her boobs under her muddy jumper has been given unpaid work.
James Naylor, 38, who was the course manager and head greenkeeper at Alloa Golf Club, also remarked on the young female employee’s bottom.
His sexualised comments made her so anxious she quit her job.
Sheriff Neil Bowie sentenced Naylor to 100 hours unpaid work and warned him the order was “a direct alternative to a custodial sentence”.
He said: “Whether you thought this was just workplace banter or not, the reality is it wasn’t, because it had a significant effect on this young girl half your age, who ultimately left her employment as a result of your comments, they were making her feel so uncomfortable.”
Quit job over abuse
Prosecutor Karen Chambers previously told Alloa Sheriff Court the17 year old felt Naylor’s behaviour change in November 2022.
“She felt he was making sexualised comments when working with her on a one-to-one basis.
“She said that once when they had been out working they’d been in mud, or had been getting wet and he said to her ‘The members won’t be able to stop looking at your boobs since you wiped your hands on your jumper’.
“He subsequently said to her, ‘Your bum looks nice in those trousers’.”
Ms Chambers said the girl was “obviously upset” and concerned the comments were “inappropriate” but did not make a fuss at the time because of her job.
In March 2023, however, she was signed off sick due to “feeling very anxious about going to work”.
She was due to return to work on May 1st, but “feeling unable to do so” she contacted police.
Ms Chambers said the girl had since found another job.
Register for nine months
Naylor, a first offender, from Glenrothes pled guilty to communicating indecently by uttering sexualised remarks to the teenager at Alloa Golf Club in Sauchie, Clackmannanshire.
Alan Jackson, defending, said: “Clearly things had gone beyond what might be banter, and crossed the line.
“When the complainer mentioned her concerns to her employers, they advised her that if she had concerns with Mr Naylor she should raise them with him.
“You can probably appreciate why she didn’t do that.
“One can also maybe appreciate that had that been done at an early stage matters – the type of conversations – would have been snuffed out, and we might not be here today.”
He said Naylor had “shown insight, perhaps belatedly”.
In addition to the unpaid work, Naylor was also placed under social work supervision and on the Sex Offenders Register for nine months.
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