A driving instructor performed a sex act on himself while giving schoolgirls lessons in the Western Isles.

Iain Munro was found guilty of handling or rubbing himself while instructing seven females, mostly teenagers, on Lewis.

Sheriff David Sutherland put the 55-year-old on the sex offenders register but deferred sentencing to a later date at Stornoway Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

The court heard the offences occurred while the learners were steering his Ford Focus during lessons between 2014 and March last year.

The trial was told his victims carried on driving and did not complain, while some booked further driving lessons.

Defence solicitor Ellen Macdonald said many of the girls were in the same secondary school in Stornoway and only made allegations after rumours spread of Munro’s arrest.

One learner driver told the court she was driving Munro’s silver-coloured Ford Focus at 60mph when he began performing a sex act on himself. She told procurator fiscal Karen Smith she “noticed the zip of his trousers [was] open” and said he was touching himself.

She said she was “shaking and burst out crying” when Munro dropped her off at the end of the lesson.

The witness, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court she alerted police the same day.

Another witness said she did not tell Munro to stop as it was "scary” and “he could have got angry and locked the car”.

The teenager said she continued taking lessons from Munro as her test was coming up, despite other instructors being available.

Munro, of Newmarket on Lewis, said his pupils could have gotten out of his car and accused them of “jumping on the bandwagon”.

He now works as a lorry driver.