British soldiers accused of rape

A woman has told a court in Wyoming, US, that she was raped by two UK soldiers whose unit was training there.

Scott Aitken, 22, from Edinburgh, and Andrew Leighton, 28, of Leeds, deny first degree sexual assault.

The woman, 26, admitted having a relationship with Mr Aitken, but said she was raped by both men after she spurned Mr Leighton's advances in July.

The men, of 4 Para, the Territorial Army battalion of the Parachute Regiment, could face 50 years in jail.

The woman told the court on Monday that the two men raped her and one of them urinated on her when the alleged attack took place on 26 July.

Rape claim

The court heard the soldiers had sneaked away from Camp Guernsey, a Wyoming National Guard base where they were stationed for a training mission.

The woman, from Guernsey, Michigan, acknowledged having begun a relationship with Mr Aitken the week before and said she had had consensual sex with him a few days before the alleged rape.

She told the court she met the pair at a bar.

They all went to her house to avoid the soldiers being seen by their officers, who were in the bar.

After kissing Mr Aitken in her back garden, she claimed she was asked if she wanted a threesome - an offer she declined.

The court heard that the men subsequently forced themselves on her, simultaneously raping her on a lounge chair behind her home.

Battery charge

In his opening statement, defence lawyer Dan Blythe acknowledged that Mr Aitken had urinated on the woman, but said the sex had been consensual.

A request for the men to be transferred back to the UK pending trial has already been denied.

The soldiers are being held at FE Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne - around 75 miles (120km) south of Camp Guernsey.

The trial continues.