MOSCOW, December 5 (RAPSI) – A court in Scotland has ruled in favor of a Russian teenager from St. Petersburg who was charged with sexually abusing a woman, Russian children’s ombudsman Pavel Astakhov reported on Instagram on Friday.

Astakhov said he monitored the case along with the Russian Consulate in Edinburgh.

He said that a Russian teenager, Grigory, aged 15, was arrested for harassing an elderly woman. The teenager and his father were with a group of tourists in Oban, a popular tourist destination in Scotland. After the boy returned from a shop where he went to buy a cake, police searched his hotel room and arrested him.

“The boy’s father appealed to Russia’s Consulate General in Edinburgh, and diplomats called police who confirmed that the boy had been arrested,” Astakhov said. “His case was forwarded to the prosecutor’s office which presented charges against the teenager. The consulate staff urged the police to release the boy on bail, but prosecutors refused. The Sheriff Court extended the boy’s arrest.”

After Astakhov’s attention was drawn to this case, he discussed the problem with his European colleagues and representatives of the Russian consulate during a working visit to Edinburgh in October. He also met with the boy and counseled him.

On December 4, a Greenock Sheriff Court jury ruled that the prosecutor’s case lacked evidence, dismissed the charges against the boy and closed the case.