A disabled man who was sexually assaulted by a woman sent to look after him told a court the incident was “like something out of a horror movie”.
Gail Fraser grabbed the pensioner by his genitals at an assisted living complex flat in Aberdeen and then, minutes later, also groped his partner’s breast.
The former cleaning supervisor, 39, had denied two charges of sexual assault but was found guilty following a trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
Giving evidence, her male victim, 59, said he was mainly bedbound at the time the incident happened, March 3 last year, due to cancer and other health conditions.
He said his then-partner had called in Fraser to sit with him for four hours while she went to run some errands.
However, when his partner returned home and they opened a bottle of vodka to thank Fraser for her help, he was left “frozen to the spot” when she then grabbed his genitals over the top of his clothing.
“She had eight or nine vodkas. I poured a few for her as I was thanking her for her good help earlier in the day,” he told fiscal depute Andrew McMann during his evidence.
“She was very hyper and very loud. She wasn’t falling about the place or anything but her eyes were wider.”
‘I just froze and she just laughed’
He said at around 4.15pm, while his then-partner was out of the room, Fraser approached him and grabbed his genitals through his jogging bottoms.
“Gail got up quite quickly, passed the couch and moved towards the kitchen but then grabbed me by my privates and just shook them,” he said.
“I have never felt that way in my whole life. I just froze and she just laughed.
“She had a good grab, she had a good shake and she had a good laugh.”
The man told the court he did not see the funny side.
“She was laughing but what she did to me wasn’t funny – it was terrible,” he added. “I just froze. It was like something out of a horror movie.
“I was shocked and dumbfounded. She didn’t say a word and it was out of the blue.
“I didn’t give her any consent. I couldn’t believe she did that to a disabled man.”
Victim pushed hand from her breast
He then told the court how when his partner returned to the room, Fraser “grabbed one of her breasts and cupped it” while his partner “fought her off”.
He said: “Gail said to her ‘what a nice pair of t*** you have’ then she cupped her over her clothing. It was a good shake and a good feel, just like she did to me.”
This left the woman “shocked, angry and distressed”, the court heard.
The 45-year-old woman also took to the witness stand to give evidence.
She told the court she came home around 2pm, having left Fraser to keep an eye on her partner.
She claimed Fraser drank “almost the whole bottle of vodka” and seemed “happy” in the hours leading up to the assault.
Prompted by a transcript of her statement to police, she said Fraser “leaned forward and tried to grab one of my breasts and I knocked her hand away”.
“She tried to do this twice,” she said. “I pushed her hand away.”
Both witnesses told the court that removal men arrived at the flat to deliver a sofa shortly afterwards and that Fraser shouted to them out of the window something about a “gang bang”.
Both also said she left shortly after and nothing was said about it until either incident until the next day.
Fraser protested innocence
Giving evidence herself Fraser denied having touched either of them.
She claimed the couple had both drank more vodka than they admitted to during their evidence and that the physical contact they spoke of simply “never happened”.
She denied making reference to a “gang bang” and insisted she “was not drunk”.
Sheriff Andrew Miller took less than 10 minutes to find her guilty, however.
He told Fraser: “I found the witnesses to be credible and reliable and I’m afraid I reject your evidence where it differs from theirs.
“The discrepancies in evidence between the witnesses were only such as might be expected from truthful witnesses trying to recall unpleasant events some 18 months ago.”
He added that the evidence, heard over two days, showed a “pattern of behaviour” and the comment towards delivery men “showed your state of mind at the time”.
‘An unpleasant turn’
“A straightforward day took an unexpected and unpleasant turn when you became uninhibited as an effect of the alcohol you had taken,” the sheriff added.
Fraser, of Bank Street, Woodside, had her sentencing deferred until next month to allow for background reports and a restriction of liberty order assessment to be prepared.
She was made subject to the notification requirements of the sex offender’s register meantime.
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