Brad Albutt, aged 40, c/o Scottish Veterans, Canongate, Edinburgh, has been sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment at Edinburgh Sheriff Court after admitting to sexually assaulting a sleeping woman on three occasions, twice utilizing a syringe containing his semen.
The offences took place over a 12-month period between October 2022 and October 2023 at a residential property in Edinburgh.
Fiscal depute Ruaridh Allison outlined the details of the attacks to the court, explaining that the first incident occurred in October 2022 while the victim was asleep at Albutt’s former residence.
The woman woke to the sensation of being penetrated by an object and, upon reaching down, removed a thin syringe from her vagina.
She initially refrained from confronting him and returned the implement to Albutt before pretending to return to sleep.
The following week, the victim was asleep on a sofa when she woke at around 11:30 pm to discover Albutt positioned near her feet holding an item.
When challenged, Albutt attempted to conceal the object, but the woman seized it and discovered it was a second syringe.
A small tub was also located nearby.
Upon being questioned by the victim, Albutt confessed that both the syringe and the tub contained samples of his semen.
The victim reported the incidents to Police Scotland, and subsequent forensic examinations verified the presence of her DNA on the syringe.
The prosecution further detailed that Albutt had sexually assaulted the sleeping woman by digital penetration in October 2022, assaulted her by punching her to the body, and committed breaches of court-imposed bail conditions.
Albutt, a South African national who joined the British Army in 2008 and completed two operational tours of Afghanistan as a corporal with the 1st Battalion, The Rifles, entered guilty pleas to three counts of sexual assault, assault occasioning injury, and breaching bail.
Sentencing Albutt, Sheriff Kevin 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.”
The sheriff ruled that the gravity of the conduct left no alternative to custody, sentencing Albutt to an immediate prison term of 20 months.
Albutt was also issued with a 10-year non-harassment order prohibiting any contact with the victim and ordered to comply with the notification requirements of the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.
Release Calculation: Under Scottish sentencing legislation governing short determinate sentences of less than four years, prisoners are subject to automatic statutory release at the halfway stage. Albutt is required to serve one-half (10 months) of his 20-month sentence in prison custody before release on licence into the community for the remainder of the term.
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