Ex-serviceman jailed for sex attacks on teenage sisters

Aaron Hickman (24) molested the older teenager and then tried to rape her younger sister at a house in Fife.

Hickman then pleaded with his victims not to tell anyone and claimed it would be their fault if he went to prison.

A judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: “You pleaded guilty to two serious sexual attacks, both committed within a very short time of each other.”

Lord Uist said: “The first attack consisted of a sexual assault on a 16-year-old and the second consisted of the attempted rape of a 15-year-old girl.”

He said: “These were opportunistic crimes. What possessed you to act in such a manner I do not know. Each victim must have been terrified by the sudden attack upon her.”

Lord Uist said: “It was only because the second victim resisted you that the crime did not amount to completed rape.”

The judge told Hickman that such crimes must attract prison sentences to mark their gravity.

Lord Uist said that if Hickman had been convicted after trial he would have faced a five year prison sentence.

Hickman, of Seafield View, Kirkcaldy, earlier admitted sexually assaulting the older girl and attempting to rape the younger victim on July 7 last year. He was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

The court earlier heard that the girls were at the house when Hickman arrived. He rubbed the older girl’s buttocks and tried to kiss her and pushed her onto a bed.

Advocate depute Jane Farquharson QC said she managed to push her attacker away and went to a bathroom and locked the door, feeling scared.

Hickman went into a bedroom where the younger girl was and kissed her and pulled up her jumper, top and bra.

The court heard that she tried to push him away but he would not stop and pulled down her leggings and pants.

Hickman tried to have sex with the girl but she fought him.

Miss Farquharson said: “The complainer wanted to shout for someone but was too scared.”

The older girl saw him leaving the room where her sister had been and found her looking scared.

The prosecutor said: “She burst out crying and told her that the accused had tried to have sex with her.”

The sisters sat with their backs to the door to prevent Hickman coming back into the room.

Miss Farquharson said: “The accused was pleading with them not to tell anyone as he would lose his job. He said it will be their fault if he went to jail.”

Hickman continued to contact them via Snapchat and repeatedly apologised to them.

The prosecutor said: “He said that he had not been able to control himself, that it had happened so fast and that he had not been thinking.”

The victims later revealed what had happened and police were contacted. Hickman was arrested two days after the attacks at the RAF base at Lossiemouth in Morayshire.

Defence counsel Michael Anderson said: “He has lost his job with the RAF as a consequence of what he did.”

He told the court: “He apologised almost immediately and is still sorry.”

Mr Anderson said that Hickman, who was on bail, was assaulted earlier this month following the commission of the offence and suffered bruising and swelling.