A Lewis pensioner facing sexual charges claims his accusers are waging a vendetta against him.
Three woman allege Norman Macdonald exposed himself to them when they were young girls.
Macdonald, 76, of 5-
He is accused of making one of the females touch his private parts and carry out a sex act on him on various occasions in the 1970s.
It is alleged he sexually exposed his private parts to two other young girls.
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30 April 2015
A further three charges against him have been withdrawn, a jury of eight woman and seven men were told on Wednesday afternoon.
Macdonald denies all the allegations. He agreed with a suggestion from procurator fiscal David Teale that the woman had “put their heads together” to get him into trouble.
He challenged the fiscal’s alternative explanation that “they are telling the truth.”
Macdonald retorted: “I didn’t hear anyone of them say they had witnesses apart from themselves.”
He acknowledged there was no simmering dispute between him and the woman and he “cannot think of any reason why they formed this vendetta against me.”
He stressed: “I did not behave inappropriately in any way at any time.”
Macdonald insisted he had never been with the girls at the beach named in court by the woman though he had been at another seaside spot with her and nothing happened.
He simply stripped to his waist and dangled his feet in a rock pool, he told procurator fiscal David Teale.
Earlier, giving evidence in court, one witness maintained he would put money in one of his pockets and induce her to try and find it. She told the court she believed he was naked under his boiler suit.
She claimed incidents took place a dozen or so times, on a beach, on a peat road and elsewhere.
One time he was allegedly naked in the sea while she was swimming or playing in the water and he pulled her right up to his private parts.
The witness -
Defence solicitor Katy Begg previously queried if the people making the allegations were colluding, pointing out there are connections between them.
The trial before Sheriff John Halley continues.