A convicted sex offender has been found guilty of molesting a teenage boy while he slept at a house in Kinross-shire.
Lucas Cole, who was prosecuted under their old name, Oliver Bond, went on to sexually assault the same man twice over the next four years.
The 32-year-old, from Cardenden, denied indecently and sexually assaulting the man, claiming they were “friends with benefits” and the acts were consensual.
However, a jury at Perth Sheriff Court took just over an hour to find Cole guilty by majority of all three charges.
Three years ago, Cole was convicted – under the name Oliver Bond – of sexually assaulting a transgender woman at a flat in Perth.
The same woman gave evidence during this trial to help corroborate testimony from Cole’s male victim.
Former friends
The trial heard how Cole, who is non-binary and was referred to as “they”, had been friends with the man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.
At some point in 2010 – when the friend was 15 or 16 – Cole indecently attacked him while he slept at a property in Milnathort.
Jurors heard the teenager woke up with Cole’s penis in his mouth.
Fiscal depute Lora Apostalova said the victim had been asleep and was incapable of giving or withholding consent.
She said Cole later forced themselves on the same person in a “strikingly similar” way.
Sometime between September 2013 and September 2014, Cole sexually assaulted his victim at a house in Kinross.
He repeatedly tried to grab his penis, pulled down his trousers and underwear, struggled with him and placed his penis in his mouth.
On a third occasion, between September 2014 and September 2016, at another house in Kinross, Cole touched his penis while he was sleeping.
Previous assault
Jurors heard from the transgender woman who Cole sexually assaulted in May 2018.
She said she went to Cole’s then home in Princes Street, Perth.
They drank alcohol and watched The Big Bang Theory, she said.
She went to Cole’s bedroom, where she fell asleep.
Later, she woke to find Cole touching her penis under her clothing.
Ms Apostalova said: “She was not able to give full consent to what was happening to her body.”
Cole, of Kirkburn Drive, was handed 200 hours of unpaid work for the sex assault when they appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh on October 21 2019.
Judge Lord Tyre said it would have been an “extremely distressing experience” for the woman.
Sheriff David Hall placed Cole on the Sex Offenders Register and deferred sentence for background reports and a risk assessment.
He told Cole: “Because you have not previously spent a period in custody, given the serious nature of these offences I will require to defer sentence for the preparation of reports.”
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