SEX PERVERT ESCAPES JAIL, JUDGE PLACED HIM ON PROBATION FOR TWO YEARS INSTEAD OF SENDING HIM TO PRISON.
A PERVERT who had sex with a 14-year-old girl escaped a jail sentence yesterday.Peter Murning, 21, walked free from court after a judge placed him on probation for two years instead of sending him to prison.
Murning, who was originally charged with raping the Port Glasgow schoolgirl, was convicted after a two-day trial of the reduced charge of having unlawful sex with her.
The offence was committed at a flat in Port Glasgow on 26 June, 2005.
During the trial, it was claimed that Murning had pulled down the girl"s trousers and underwear and raped her.
The jury convicted Murning, who denied rape, of having unlawful sex with the 14-year-old girl.
Yesterday, at the High Court in Glasgow judge Lady Smith told Murning: "You were convicted of an offence which is a troubling one.
You just can"t behave the way you did on the day of this offence." She ordered him to stay out of trouble and to appear before her every six months to review his progress.
But, she warned that if he failed to comply with the conditions imposed by social workers he could be sent to jail.
Thomas Ross, defending, said: "The accused has had a number of difficulties in his life.
He has recently volunteered for work with the British Heart Foundation in Paisley and has been invited to work in their shop.
He worked there last Tuesday and would have been there today if he had not been in court." At a previous court appearance Murning, of Inchinnan Court in Paisley, was placed on the Sex Offenders" Register.
