Pensioner Jailed For Fetish Pictures Attack

A pensioner who bound and gagged a woman at knifepoint to take pictures for his fetish website was jailed yesterday. Alexander McAuslan pretended he was a photographer who needed pictures of women posing for a lifestyle magazine. But the 70-year-old actually wanted pictures of women in real terror for a new fetish website he was setting up called Women in Peril. He created a fake persona - which even included business cards - and spoke to his victim on the phone about modelling for him. He then met her at a Costa Coffee branch in Helensburgh where he told her he was a photographer who had been engaged by a client and wanted photographs of women posing for use in advertisements. McAuslan then lured her to his semi-detached home in a cul-de-sac in the quiet village of Renton, West Dunbartonshire. He had set up a photography studio in his home and, during the session, he tricked his 49-year-old victim into kneeling on the floor and putting her hands behind her back. Once he had duped her into kneeling on the floor he pounced, grabbed her hands, bound them behind her back with cable ties, duct-taped her mouth closed and tried to pull taped goggles over her face. As he tried to pull the goggles down over her eyes she spotted the knife and roll of duct tape lying next to her. She managed to escape and raise the alarm which led to McAuslan being arrested and charged for subjecting the woman to the terrifying ordeal. McAuslan later claimed that, after photographing the woman, he would have cut her free and asked her to consent to the pictures being used on his website. Earlier this year he pleaded guilty to lying to the woman about being a photographer and assaulting her on May 2nd 2014. Sentence was deferred so he could be assessed by social workers and a psychiatrist and he returned to the dock at Dumbarton Sheriff Court to learn his fate. His solicitor, Gail Campbell, asked for McAuslan to be spared jail, saying he was "shaken" by the prospect of going to prison. She said: "His sense of remorse is palpable. "He is an elderly gentleman and a genuine first offender and has difficulty expressing exactly his reasoning and his cognitive thinking relative to the events in the property that afternoon. "His regret and remorse is extremely apparent. "Every time I see him, effectively, he asks how he can make the situation better. "He is fully aware of the impact of his actions on the complainer and that will stay with him for a very long time. "At the very least this was extremely distressing and extremely alarming for the lady concerned. "He deeply regrets that he instigated these actions and any distress caused to the complainer." She asked that he be placed on a Community Payback Order, saying he could be supervised by social workers, engage fully with the authorities and pay a substantial amount of compensation to his victim. But Sheriff Maxwell Hendry ruled there was only one way he could deal with the pensioner. As he jailed McAuslan the sheriff said it was the strangest case he had ever dealt with in his 35-year legal career and one where jail could not be avoided. He said: "This is the single most bizarre case I've seen in my 35 years of different experience in the criminal courts. "Nothing I've seen since, read since or heard since has caused me to change that view. "It's a bizarre case - you're a 70-year-old retired professional man with no obvious problems. "You are financially comfortable and do not have any addiction or substance issues. "You have supporting and loving relationships with three generations of your family. "Most people lucky enough to find themselves in that situation have no reason to be committing crimes. "You had not broken the law until May 2014. "In April 2014 you could be described as a model citizen but that position was radically altered by your actions in May 2014 "The behaviour can be properly characterised in my view as horrific. "You created a false persona, maintained that pretense during a phone call and a one-hour face-to-face meeting and then lured her to your home where you'd set up a photography studio. "You placed tape over her mouth presumably to stop her from screaming or prevent her from breathing. "You tried to place taped goggles over her eyes to stop her from seeing what was or what was about to happen. "She was able to escape largely only due to her determination. "This was a traumatic experience in the extreme for her and one from which she may never recover - you seemed to treat her as a necessary pawn in your plan. "Only in the most unusual circumstances is the court going to send a 70-year-old first offender to jail." He caged McAuslan for 27 months, reduced from three years as he admitted his guilt, and told him he will be supervised for 12 months when he is released back into the community. Frail McAuslan stared at the floor and looked like a broken man when he was told he was being jailed.