Brad Albutt, 40, an infantryman with The Rifles regiment, admitted three sexual assaults – Alexander Lawrie
A soldier tried to inject a woman with a semen-filled syringe while she was sleeping, a court has heard.
Brad Albutt, an infantryman with The Rifles regiment, sexually assaulted the woman on three separate occasions while she was sleeping.
The soldier confessed to the victim following the third assault when she woke up to find him holding a syringe and a tub containing his sperm.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told the first attack saw 40-year-old Albutt penetrate the woman with his fingers while she slept on a sofa at an Edinburgh property in October 2022.
Ruaridh Allison, prosecuting, said the woman was wearing just a dressing gown and had fallen asleep while they were watching television.
“Her next recollection was waking up with the sensation of being penetrated. It was the sensation of her vagina being penetrated,” Mr Allison said.
“The accused was still seated and she knew it was not his penis that had penetrated her and believed it to be his hand.”
Second incident
The second incident took place in October a year later at the same address, when she again had fallen asleep on the sofa.
She again woke up to the sensation of her vagina being penetrated, but this time she “felt it was an object penetrating her”.
Mr Allison said: “She reached down and removed an object from her vagina and realised it was a syringe.
“She chose not to confront him at that time and gave the syringe back to him.”
The third incident happened a week later when the victim fell asleep on the sofa, believing Albutt was in the spare room.
But she woke up around 11:30pm to find him beside her feet on the sofa with something in his hand.
“When she asked what he was holding he attempted to hide the object,” Mr Allison said.
“She tried to grab the object and found it again to be a syringe and there was also a small tub sitting on the couch.
“When she asked, the accused then disclosed to her that both the syringe and the tub contained samples of his semen.”
Forensic analysis
The woman immediately contacted the police and officers seized the items. A forensic analysis found her DNA was on the syringe.
Albutt was arrested and after appearing in court the following day he was granted bail with conditions not to contact the woman.
But the infantryman breached the bail order the same day by sending the woman a social media message on Oct 19, 2023.
Albutt admitted to sexually penetrating the woman with his fingers and a syringe, and attempting to penetrate her vagina with a syringe containing semen on occasions between Oct 1, 2022 and Oct 18, 2023.
He also pleaded guilty to charges of assaulting the woman by punching her to the body and to breaching bail conditions when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Kevin McCarron placed Albutt on the sex offenders’ register on an interim basis and deferred full sentence to February next year.