Description
A former soldier who attempted to penetrate a woman with a syringe containing his semen while she slept has been jailed and placed on the sex offenders register.
Brad Albutt, 40, sexually assaulted the victim on three separate occasions - twice with the sharp implement - over a 12 month period at a property in Edinburgh. The ex-serviceman, who was a corporal with the 1st Battalion, The Rifles, was forced to confess about his depraved acts when the woman woke up to find him holding the syringe and a tub containing his semen.
Albutt pleaded guilty to the three sex attacks at a hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in December last year and sentencing has been delayed on several occasions to obtain a psychiatric report. He also admitted to charges of assaulting the woman by punching her to the body and breaching bail conditions, all between October 2022 and October 2023.
Albutt returned to the dock for sentencing on Monday where Sheriff Kevin McCarron said there was no alternative but to impose a custodial sentence.
Sheriff McCarron said: “These offences spanned a period of one year and involved a significant violation of your victim. More worrying, these offences were planned by you.
“I am taking into account your background and it is also obvious you have served your country for a significant period of time and placed yourself at risk. To balance that, there must have been awful consequences for your victim of your actions.”
Albutt was jailed for 20 months and placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years. He was also handed a non-harassment order banning him from contacting the victim for the next 10 years.
Lawyer Paul Smith, defending, told the court Albutt, c/o the Scottish Veterans, Canongate, Edinburgh, was a South African national and had moved to the UK in 2000. Mr Smith said his client had joined the British Army in 2008 and had served two tours in Afghanistan before leaving in July last year.
The court heard Albutt had been working recently with Lothian Buses and the criminal justice social work reports had been deemed him a low risk of re-offending. The court was previously told the first syringe attack took place as the woman slept at Albutt’s former home in the capital in October 2022.
Fiscal depute Ruaridh Allison said the woman had woken up to find she was being penetrated by an object.
Mr Allison said: “The accused was sitting on the sofa and she reached down and removed an object from her vagina and realised it was a syringe. She described it as being a very thin syringe unlike one she had seen before.
“She chose not to confront him at that time and gave the syringe back to him. Following this she lay down and pretended to go to sleep.”
Mr Allison said the woman was subsequently attacked by the squaddie with the syringe for a second time the following week.
He said: “She fell asleep on the couch while she understood the accused to be in the spare room. Around 11.30pm she woke up to find the accused beside her feet at the couch and noticed he was holding something in his hand.
“When she asked what he was holding he attempted to hide the object. 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.”
The court was told the woman reported the shocking attacks to the police and a forensic examination conducted later that night had found her DNA on the syringe.
Mr Allison said Albutt had also sexually assaulted the woman as she slept by penetrating her with his fingers in October 2022.