A FUNERAL director grabbed a junior female colleague’s buttock then laughed in her face when the ‘horrified’ woman immediately confronted him.

Stuart Munro — whose assault within the Co-op Funeralcare premises on Greenock’s West Blackhall Street was slammed by a sheriff — sparked investigations by his bosses and police.

His 42-year-old victim told how she later sobbed in the parlour’s darkened mortuary, while Munro, 63, continued to go about his daily duties as if nothing had happened.

The woman said: “He came right up behind me and grabbed my left buttock.

“It was a proper grab, not a touch or a nip.”

She had been called over from the Co-op’s Dunoon branch to help out with an Inverclyde funeral when Munro, whom she’d met a ‘handful of times’, touched her within a narrow office just off the reception area.

The woman told Greenock Sheriff Court: “I was horrified. I confronted him straight away about it.

“I was well aware that my Dunoon colleague and the receptionist were outside and I did raise my voice in the hope that they would hear.”

She added: “Mr Munro laughed in my face and said, ‘Yeah, because that’s sexual harassment’, and then he walked out.

“His face had changed colour and his expression changed from shock to making it into a joke.

“I believe that he was still laughing and smiling as he left the office.”

She told the court that bosses wanted to ‘brush it under the carpet’ and asked her to sign a confidentiality agreement after an internal probe found ‘no wrongdoing’ by Munro.

The victim — who had been with the company six months, and Munro for 45 years — also stated that the Co-op told her that she would have to continue working with him as and when required.

She said that it was then that she decided to take the matter up with a lawyer, and also called in police, after a doctor had signed her off work sick for three months.

Recounting the day of the assault on May 26 last year, the woman, who was employed as a funeral service operator, said: “I was supposed to drive Stuart Munro to a funeral as he was the funeral director but I couldn’t do that — couldn’t be in a car on my own with him.

“I went into the mortuary and just sat in the dark and cried.”

Her former co-worker, Alan McQuarrie, 47, who had also travelled from Dunoon that day, told the court that he did hear the words ‘sexual harassment’ and agreed that that it could have been Munro who said them.

Mr McQuarrie testified that his female colleague — who no longer works for Co-op Funeralcare and is now employed as a manager elsewhere — appeared to be ‘upset, wound up and angry’.

Munro told the court that he had merely touched the woman on ‘one side of her hip’ as he squeezed past her on his way to do some computer work.

He said: “I was willing to apologise but I got it thrown in my face.

“I was not apologising for what she said I’d done, but just if I’d upset her.”

However, his victim stated that Munro had initially refused to apologise to her at what was termed a ‘bridge-building’ meeting and only eventually said sorry ‘under duress’ from a senior manager.

She said: “I was being badgered to work with this man and build bridges and keep quiet.”

Prosecutor Lindy Scaife put it to Munro: “You told people afterwards that you touched her hip because you realised the seriousness of what you’d done.”

Munro replied: “No, that’s not the case.”

Ms Scaife said: “Has she made it all up?”

Munro responded: “I never said she’d made it all up. I touched her but I never groped her.”

He had originally been charged with sexually assaulting the woman but this was dropped by Sheriff David Hall who ruled that such an element had not been ‘sufficiently demonstrated’ by the Crown.

The sheriff found Munro guilty of common law assault by grabbing the woman’s buttock.

Defence lawyer Charles Drummond argued that the incident was ‘minor in nature’, adding: “This whole process has been tortuous for Mr Munro and his family.” 

Sheriff Hall told Munro: “Your action was one of crass stupidity and foolishness and to jeopardise your good name in this way is beyond comprehension.”

Munro, whose address wasn’t given in court, was fined £400 and allowed 28 days to pay.

The Telegraph put the victim’s comments in court — regarding how the matter was dealt with by Co-op Funeralcare — to the company.

A spokeswoman said: “We take very seriously the welfare of our colleagues and have robust policies and procedures in place.

“It would be inappropriate to comment on individual cases.”