A FUNERAL director who sexually assaulted a colleague when he groped her bottom as they worked together has been sentenced.

Craig Armstrong, 52, grabbed and slapped the woman on the buttocks while the pair were alone in the kitchen area of the Edinburgh funeral parlour in January 2022.

Armstrong also made sexual comments to the woman by talking about the size of her breasts and asking if she was late for work because she had been “s****ing” her partner.

The “creepy” funeral boss was also found to have labelled his co-worker “a wee slut” and “a wee dirty” in front of work colleagues.

Armstrong denied all the allegations but was found guilty of the sex attack and to using graphic sexual language towards the woman following a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month

Armstrong, of High Street, Musselburgh, returned to the dock for sentencing on Friday, where Sheriff Roderick Flinn issued him with a fine of £320 and placed him on the sex offenders' register for five years.

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Solicitor Simon Collins, representing Armstrong, said that his client had already suffered “an element of punishment” after losing his job as a funeral director and his subsequent employment with a supermarket chain.

Previously, the trial heard from funeral worker Joyce Cruickshank, who told the court that she had witnessed the sex assault on her colleague at the funeral business in Edinburgh.

Mrs Cruickshank, 52, told the court that she was standing in a different room but saw Armstrong walk up behind the woman and “put his hand on her bottom” during a lunch break.

She said on several occasion that she had overheard Armstrong making lewd comments about “the size of her breasts” and asking her “are you late [for work] because you were s****ing?”.

She described Armstrong as “creepy” and said that she regularly heard him calling the woman “a wee slut” and “a wee dirty” during work hours.

She said: “I felt like taking her under my wing in a motherly fashion. I wouldn’t like my daughter to be spoken to like that in a place of work.

“Honestly, I thought he was a creep.”

Sacked

The court was told that the victim reported the sex assault to the funeral company’s management and Armstrong was subsequently suspended in January 2022.

He was later sacked from his position and the incident was reported to the police.

Armstrong told the trial that staff at the funeral business regularly engaged in “banter” but denied making any sexual comments towards the woman.

He also denied sexually assaulting the woman by grabbing or slapping her bottom while the pair were alone in the kitchen area.

Armstrong was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman by handling and striking her buttocks at the funeral director business in Edinburgh on January 13, 2022.

He was also found guilty of intentionally directing sexual communication at the woman without consent by using repeated graphic sexual language when commenting on her private life and repeatedly uttering derogatory remarks to her at the same location between October 1, 2021, and January 13, 2022.