A PRESTWICK pervert who had sex with a 13-year-old schoolgirl after meeting her in the woods has claimed he didn’t know it was wrong because he thinks he is autistic.

David James MacFarlane met with the child in woods near to Fairlie Train Station and had sex with her and sodomised her on November 17 last year.

The court heard that the 20-year-old, of Ardfin Road in Prestwick, met with the child on the date last year and placed his hand under her clothing and sexually molested her, before he sexually penetrated her.

But MacFarlane’s lawyer Sandy Currie claimed to Kilmarnock Sheriff Court that his client suffered from “a lack of consequential thinking”.

Mr Currie said MacFarlane’s family, who had come to court to support him, feared he “may be on the autistic spectrum”.

Mr Currie told the court: “His family who are here today have had concerns over a number of years that he may be on the autistic spectrum and there’s an on going assessment of that.

“He has been referred to a clinic of psychologists.”

Mr Currie also said his client did not fully ‘appreciate’ how serious his crimes were.

He added: “He has a lack of appreciation of the serious nature of these charges. Clearly he’s an adult and there’s a significant age gap between him and the complainer.”

Sheriff Elizabeth MacFarlane agreed to adjourn sentencing MacFarlane until the psychological assessments had been completed.