A woman claims she was “grabbed” by a man on the same morning he is accused of carrying out a terrifying sexual assault on a young mum in her Peterhead home.
Ramunas Smitras, 32, is standing trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court accused of sexually assaulting three women in the town in 2013.
Earlier this week a mum-of-two gave evidence claiming that he crept into her home in the early hours of April 27 and subjected her to a prolonged attack.
The woman described her terror after she awoke to find a stranger standing over her bed with his trousers pulled down.
Today the jury heard evidence from Smitras’ second alleged victim, a 35-year-old woman who was on her way to a car boot sale in Peterhead that same day.
Court had to be halted
She told the court she encountered him near Drummer’s Corner in the town centre at around 9am – just hours after the alleged attack involving the first woman.
Under questioning by fiscal depute Lynne MacVicar, she said he walked up behind her and put his arm around her shoulder before spinning her around and placing his arms down around her waist and back.
She said the man was wearing a “Rangers-coloured” blue jacket.
Court had to be halted when the woman became distressed after being shown a blue jacket like the one she said the man was wearing.
When asked why she had become so upset, she told Ms MacVicar: “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to recognise it – it caught me off guard that I did.”
She was also shown CCTV footage of a man the previous night.
Asked if she recognised him, she said: “That’s the man who grabbed me.”
Solicitor quizzed woman on police statement
During cross-examination, defence advocate Drew McKenzie suggested to the woman that she had described the blue jacket as a “waterproof jacket” in her police statement at the time.
He said: “What you would want to do is be as accurate as possible when talking to the police so they could apprehend this man.
“What you said in relation to the jacket was to give a pretty particular description of a blue zip-up waterproof jacket.
“Would you agree that a waterproof jacket tends to be a lighter jacket than a heavy bulky jacket?”
“No,” the woman replied.
Several other witnesses have told Aberdeen Sheriff Court they saw a man in a “blue puffer jacket” loitering outside the home of the first alleged victim.
Smitras, a former welder, is alleged to have sexually assaulted another woman at the town’s Caley Bar by repeatedly touching her on the body between March 1 and March 31 2013.
He denies all the charges against him.
The trial, before Sheriff Morag McLaughlin, continues next week.
For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our Facebook group.
