Sex attacker tried to rape girl, 15, after assaulting her sister

The older sibling found her sister looking scared after her ordeal and the younger girl burst out crying and revealed Aaron Hickman had tried to have sex with her.

The High Court in Edinburgh was told that the teenagers then heard Hickman coming back up stairs and sat with their backs against a bedroom door to stop him entering.

Advocate depute Jane Farquharson QC said: "The accused was pleading with them not to tell anyone as he would lose his job."

The older sister told him that what he had done was wrong. "He said it will be their fault if he went to jail," said Miss Farquharson.

Hickman contacted them through Snapchat and begged them not to tell anyone, but the sisters resolved to inform their parents who were shown messages from him.

The police were contacted and Hickman was arrested at the RAF base at Lossiemouth, in Moray, in July last year.

Miss Farquharson said that Hickman (24) of Seafield View, Kirkcaldy, had signed up with the RAF in 2018. He was working as a logistics supplier but was subsequently discharged.

Hickman admitted attempting to rape the younger teenager at a house in Fife on July 7.

He also pled guilty to sexually assaulting her older sister on the same date by touching her, trying to kiss her, struggling with her, pushing her onto a bed and lying on top of her.

The court heard that both girls were visiting the house and Hickman had also visited.

The older teenager, who was 16 at the time, went upstairs to help her sister look for hair clips but Hickman followed her and sexually assaulted her.

Miss Farquharson said: "This made her feel very uncomfortable and she froze."

She walked away but Hickman followed her into a room and continued the assault before she managed to push him away. She went to the bathroom and locked the door.

The younger sister, who was in a different room, heard her sister lock the door.

Hickman came into the room she was in and tried to rape her, causing the teenager pain.

The advocate depute said: "She could hear her sister coming out of the bathroom and believes the accused heard this too and that is why he stopped."

The court heard that Hickman repeatedly apologised to them in messages after the assaults.

Miss Farquharson said: "He said he had not been able to control himself, that it had happened so fast and that he had not been thinking."

The judge, Lord Uist, told Hickman that he had pled guilty to serious sexual offences.

He adjourned the case until July for the preparation of a background report on the offender who has never previously been sentenced to imprisonment.

Hickman was put on the sex offenders' register.