AN AYR man who made vile sexual comments to two teenage girls on board a train before being challenged by another passenger has dodged jail time.

Stephen Gray, 53, will spend 18 months on the sex offenders register and will be supervised by social workers for the same amount of time after he admitted causing the 16-year-old girls fear and alarm.

The incident happened on board a train travelling from Glasgow to Ayr earlier this year.

Gray, of Campbell Court, was sentenced at the town’s sheriff court last week after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to threatening or abusive behaviour, aggravated by homophobic prejudice, by making the indecent sexual comments to the girls.

A previous hearing was told that Gray was sat across from the girls during the journey on March 25, drinking alcohol and appearing drunk.

The procurator fiscal depute told that hearing in May that Gray had said ‘I hate poofters’, and a witness challenged him on that, stating she was gay.

Gray added 'I’m a lesbian, I love women,' then asked if the pair 'wanted a threesome'.

One witness then advised the accused they were both 16, to which Gray replied 'does that make me a pervert?'.

The fiscal depute added: “That sort of conduct continued and he stated 'he wanted to dominate them'. Another passenger overheard and asked him to stop.

“[One of the girls] contacted her mother by text message, who contacted police. The accused was met by British Transport Police.

“He was cautioned and charged and replied ‘it was just a statement, I wasn’t chatting them up in any way’.”

At last week’s sentencing hearing Gray was placed on a community payback order and put on the sex offenders register until December 2024.