Former UKIP chairman denies sex offences

The former chairman of UKIP in Scotland has appeared in court, accused of a string of sexual offences.

Arthur Misty Thackeray, 55, denies 12 charges spanning eight years between October 2007 and December 2015, involving 12 different women.

The offences are said to have occurred at his Glasgow home, at 1 St Colme Street, Edinburgh and "elsewhere".

UKIP Scotland leader and MEP David Coburn's office is at the same address in the capital.

One of the charges is an alleged breach of the peace by making sexual remarks over the phone to a woman and her 14-year-old daughter and telling them he was watching a "sexually explicit video".

Another is behaving in a threatening or abusive manner "likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm" by repeatedly contacting a woman and "causing" her to believe he was outside her home and watching her.

Some charges are alleged to have taken place at the office address of MEP David Coburn.

The other 10 charges are for allegedly "communicating indecently".

These include contacting women by telephone, "uttering sexual remarks" and "directing sexual questions" at some of them, as well as causing some to believe he was watching adult material while talking to them.

He is also accused of causing another woman to believe he was watching her and causing her to hear "sexual noises".

His lawyer Jackie White withdrew from acting due to problems with legal aid and the court appointed another lawyer when the case was called at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Wednesday. The case was continued until a later date.

Mr Thackeray stood down temporarily from his position in UKIP when the allegations came to light in January.