A PERVERT is facing jail for sexually assaulting a teenage girl at a Johnstone school while he was on a work placement.

Gordon MacKenzie, 45, groped the girl as she stood in a queue in the dinner hall in front of hundreds of other people, including parents.

The attack took place on June 14 this year during an after-school event that MacKenzie, of Spateston Road, Johnstone, had helped organise.

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He denied he had done anything wrong – forcing his victim to relive the ordeal on the witness stand at Paisley Sheriff Court.

Giving evidence about the incident from behind a screen so she did not have to see her attacker, the girl – who can’t be named for legal reasons – said: “It was an event at the school. Parents were there too.

“Gordon was helping out, it was about the third time he’d been at it.

“I was in the queue for all the stuff, the food that had been prepared. Gordon was behind me in the queue. I didn’t speak to him.”

Procurator fiscal depute Claire Rowan, prosecuting, then asked the girl if something happened which meant she now had to be at court.

She replied: “He touched me, Gordon, on my bum, with his hands. I could feel his fingers and that.

“I was wearing my school skirt, my school clothes. It was on top of my clothes and it was only for like five seconds or something.

“He was rubbing it.”

The girl said MacKenzie did not say anything to her before, during or after groping her – and that she did not say anything to him.

But she told the court she looked towards her friends, who were sitting at a table and noticed what had happened.

She explained: “I was just looking over to my pals and the people that were there.

“They were just saying, like, was his hand on me and that they thought it was awkward for me.”

She said she felt awkward when the attack was taking place, adding: “I didn’t know what to do. I was close to the front of the queue and, when I got to there, it stopped.”

One of her friends, who also gave evidence, was asked if she may have been mistaken about what she thought she had witnessed.

However, she told the court: “I know what I saw.”

The matter was reported to police, leading to MacKenzie being charged and landing in the dock last week.

Sheriff David Pender found him guilty of sexually assaulting the teen against her will by placing his hand on her buttocks.

He then called for background reports to be prepared for what he termed the “very serious matter” and adjourned the case until next month for that to be done.

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MacKenzie was a university student on a short-term community education placement at the time of his attack on the youngster.

A Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said: “We followed child protection procedures, immediately reporting the matter to police and social work, and the placement was terminated.”