Police officer on trial in Edinburgh for rape of woman and young girl

A Police Scotland officer has gone on trial in Edinburgh charged with the rape of a woman and a young girl.

Martyn Coulter, 36, allegedly assaulted and raped the woman in Dunbar, East Lothian, in June or July 2013 and again in Edinburgh in September that year.

He is also accused of the rape and a series of sexual assaults on a girl, aged five when attacks began, from September 2013 to November 2014.

Mr Coulter, who is suspended from the force, denied all the charges.

He lodged a special defence to the alleged rape in September 2013, stating that he was in England on a military police training course.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard Mr Coulter attacked the woman on that occasion to celebrate news that he was returning to the Army.

The court heard that Mr Coulter was a police officer while in the Army Reserve, but he had applied to go back to the Army.

The woman, 36, told the trial: "He got a letter to say he was going back on tour. He was really excited."

She said she told Mr Coulter she did not want to have sex, but he pushed her back and she fell to the floor and he raped her.

She told the court that she did not say anything while on the floor and Coulter did not say anything to her.

Mr Coulter pleaded not guilty to this and a further seven charges.

These include assaulting the woman on occasions from June 2013 to November 2014 by hitting and kicking her, causing her to fall down stairs and striking her head against a kitchen cabinet.

He is also accused of attacking the five year-old girl and another girl, aged four or five, at an address in Dunbar between September 2013 and November 2014.

He faces a further charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner during that period.

The trial before Lady Drummond continues.