ARISTO CLEARED OF SEX ASSAULT
Woman claimed she was attacked in four-poster bed at stately home
AN ARISTOCRAT has been cleared of sexually assaulting a guest at a birthday bash held at his family’s stately home after a not proven verdict.
Euan Tennant, 39, was on trial accused of the alleged attack on a woman in her mid-20s in a fourposter bed at the mansion.
The woman told how she was sharing the bed with a female pal when they gave permission to Tennant to sleep beside them.
She said Tennant left her “frozen” after running his hand up her leg before sexually assaulting her.
Giving evidence on Wednesday, Tennant said he believed the woman had given her consent.
The jury at Edinburgh Sheriff Court returned a not proven verdict by majority yesterday.
A visibly relieved Tennant, whose grandparents were confidantes of Princess Margaret, the Queen’s late sister, walked free from the dock.
Asked to comment on the verdict outside the courtroom, Tennant said: “I hope everyone can move on with their lives in a meaningful and fulfilling way.”
Tennant had denied a charge of sexual assault and lodged a special defence of consent. His accuser told the court on Tuesday how she, her pal and Tennant had chatted about consent in sexual matters at Glen House, near Innerleithen, in the Borders.The woman said Tennant and her pal snorted cocaine but she didn’t have any, and they were “chatting and having a nice time”.
She told been invited to a stay at Glen House to celebrate Tennant’s birthday on in July 2019 by the mutual friend
Tennant got on the bed as they talked, and he asked if he could sleep there over the covers. He later asked if he could “take his trousers off and get under the covers”, the woman said. After the lights were off and her pal was asleep, she described feeling Tennant “stroking my knee” then touching her thigh before he sexually assaulted her.
She said she lay still, hoping he would stop. When her pal went to the bathroom, the woman said she jumped up. She said Tennant told her: “Sorry that I offended you,” but started touching her leg again when the three were back in bed, and she ran from the room. In his evidence, Tennant said he’d touched the back of the woman’s knee in the bed. He said the woman hadn’t moved to motion him away so he took that as a “green light” to continue.
Tennant’s late grandfather, Colin Tennant, the 3rd Baron Glenconner, once owned Mustique and hosted Princess Margaret and other celebrities with lavish parties on the Caribbean island.
He asked if he could take his trousers off and go under the covers TENNANT’S ACCUSER