A woman has avoided a prison sentence after she sexually assaulted a disabled man she had been asked to take care of.
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.
During a trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, the man described the incident as “like something out of a horror movie”.
The former cleaning supervisor, 39, had denied two charges of sexual assault but was found guilty following a trial.
During her sentence hearing, Sheriff Andrew Miller described Fraser’s offences as “unpleasant”.
Man left ‘frozen to the spot’ by accused’s actions
Giving evidence, her male victim, 59, said he was mainly bedbound at the time the incident happened, on 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.
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.
“She was very hyper and very loud. She wasn’t falling about the place or anything but her eyes were wider.”
“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.”
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.
Accused drank lion’s share of vodka
When the 45-year-old woman also took to the witness stand to give evidence she told the court that 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 either incident until the next day.
Incidents ‘never happened’, accused claims
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”.
However, Sheriff Andrew Miller took less than 10 minutes to find her guilty.
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.”
During sentencing this week, Fraser’s defence agent Debbie Ginniver told the court that her client hadn’t charged her attitude towards the offences and still denied her guilt.
She stated that a social work report took the view that Fraser would benefit most from a community-based disposal.
“I would ask that the court follow the recommendations of the report,” Ms Ginniver added.
Sheriff Miller told Fraser: “You have been convicted of these two unpleasant offences after trial.
“These are offences which arose from a situation in which alcohol had been taken and it seems to me that the alcohol had a disinhibiting impact on your conduct to the complainer, which is difficult to explain.
“But I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that these offences took place.”
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Miller sentenced Fraser to a community payback order with supervision for 12 months and ordered her to carry out 140 hours of unpaid work.
He also placed Fraser, of Bank Street, Woodside, on the sex offender’s register for one year.
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