A MAN who groped lone women on buses has been given jailed for two years and placed on the sex offenders register.

Alan Gray, 59, sat behind his victims and slid his hand between the seats, putting his hand up one woman’s top and rubbing another on the back.

Gray, who was banned from public transport at the time, previously admitted assaulting three strangers in Edinburgh, but claimed he could not remember doing it because he was drunk.

However, Sheriff Kenneth MacIver rejected Gray’s claim at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today and jailed him for two years, ordering he be supervised under licence for a further three years after his release.

“You knew exactly what you were doing, you simply don’t want to accept the consequences,” said Sheriff MacIver.

“You are a sex offender who is likely to commit further sexually motivated crimes. I am concerned to ensure that the public is adequately protected from serious harm.”

Gray, a prisoner in Edinburgh Prison, was previously jailed for 15 months for assault with intent to rape and has been graded at medium to high risk of re-offending.

His latest exploits were exposed after he was identified in CCTV footage taken on the buses.

Unemployed Gray had rubbed a 25-year-old woman on the body on the top deck of a bus at Gilmerton Road and Drum Street in Edinburgh at 9am on June 13 last year.

He carried out a similar assault on a 21-year-old on a bus in Gilmerton Road on October 5 last year.

He then repeatedly touched a 47-year-old woman’s body and tried to touch her breast on the lower deck of a bus between Princes Street and Roseburn Terrace at 5pm on April 4 this year.

Defence agent Gordon Stewart said: “He accepts that his behaviour was wholly inappropriate and distressing for his victims.”

Alistair Darling took on the Conservatives over inheritance tax today as he announced that the threshold for couples to would be doubled to 600,000 - with immediate effect.

The chancellor also used his first pre-budget report to pledge an extra 400m this year for the armed forces and a closing of the loopholes that allow private equity bosses to pay less tax than their cleaners.

But in a clear attempt to wrest the political initiative from the Tories, who last week pledged to exempt all but millionaires from inheritance tax, Mr Darling accused the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, of creating 2bn shortfall in the Conservatives’ spending plans.

Mr Osborne branded the statement a “desperate cynical stunt from a desperate and weak prime minister”.

Under Mr Darling’s proposals, the total amount of inheritance for married couples and civil partnerships on which no tax is paid will immediately rise to 600,000.

By 2010 the combined tax-free allowance for couples will rise to 700,000.

This will be backdated indefinitely for every widow or widower, and in future years, both house prices and inflation will be taken into account when setting thresholds.

His proposals came after the Tories promised at their annual conference last week to exempt estates under 1m from inheritance tax.

However, Mr Darling dismissed Tory plans to pay for the cut with a 25,000 flat rate charge on “non domiciled” wealthy foreigners - saying it would raise just 650m, not the 3.5bn that the Tories claimed.

But to opposition jeers of derision he said that he would be bringing forward his own measures to ensure that the “non-doms” were made to “pay their fair share”.

Mr Darling said that his inheritance tax proposals would mean that 97% of estates would be exempt while leaving him with an extra 2bn to invest in schools and hospitals.

Spending on the NHS in England would rise from 90bn this year to 110bn in 2010, Mr Darling said.

ORGANISERS have hailed this year’s Royal Highland Show as one of the best yet, despite the wet weather.

Almost 150,000 people visited Ingliston at the weekend, around 13,000 fewer than last year’s record numbers.

But despite the drop, organisers said bookings from farmers wanting to display livestock were up on previous years, and highlighted an ever-growing range of entertainment and sideshows.

Almost 5000 cattle, sheep, goats and horses were on display at this year’s event.

A Royal Highland Show spokesman said: “This has been one of the best shows we’ve ever put on and we are delighted with the attendance, which beat 2000, 2001 and 2004. Last year we got 161,409, but that was a record for Ingliston.”

The range of people young and old, from Scotland, the UK, and across the world, who donned Wellington boots and waterproofs, certainly did not let the weather get them down.

They milled through the makeshift village, shopped at the giant food hall, and saw sheep and cattle from across Scotland.

The Young Farmers held a dance and younger children learned how to make smoothies and cook Scottish produce in a wok in the educational centre.

Live music ranged from the Royal Marines band to musicians from Cuba and Latin America.

Stirling was named the ‘host’ area of the show and singers and musicians from schools travelled across to play.

The Royal Highland Show, one of the highlights of Scotland’s calendar, brings an estimated 100 million into the Scottish economy and 54m to Edinburgh alone.

The amount of money that passed hands at Ingliston over the previous three days, through ticket sales and purchases on site, has yet to be calculated.

At least 16 tractors sold at about 150,000 each, while combine harvesters were priced at 250,000.

David Dunsmuir, show manager, said the event is in the fourth year of a five-year plan, but has already achieved its aim of being the premier UK event of its kind.

“We had to return a lot of livestock entries because we were oversubscribed,” he added.

“We had waiting lists for trade stands and could have run the show three weeks ago, we were so far ahead in terms of interest.

“Our aim was to make this the best show in Britain and we’ve done that. And we’ve had huge levels of international interest.

“In just one transaction we sold 15,000 tickets to a group from Northern Ireland. We’ve had people from Spain, France, America, and Australia.”

One of the things that has benefited the Royal Highland Show is the greater emphasis on local produce.

Buying Scottish meat, vegetables, fish and fruit, has become an integral part of the campaign for healthier eating, and also benefits the environment by reducing road travel. It has been a message from previous Royal Highland Shows and the event is now reaping the benefits.

As the event nears the end of its five-year plan, the next phase will involve the move to a new site across the A8 to make way for the Edinburgh Airport expansion.

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