Man jailed over assaulting two women with prosthetic

● Women suffered ‘extreme pain’ during intercourse

A man who admitted repeatedly sexually assaulting two women – despite having no penis – has been jailed and placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

Carlos Delacruz, 35, was in a relationship with the women at separate times when he pretended to have sex with them by using a “flesh and blood” prosthetic penis during lovemaking sessions.

Both victims, who cannot be identified due to legal reasons, were said to have suffered “extreme pain” during intercourse. The women also suffered from thrush afterwards.

Delacruz, from Banknock near Falkirk, pleaded guilty when he appeared at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month to penetrating both women with an unknown object without their consent at two addresses in Edinburgh between May 2013 and May last year.

He returned to the dock yesterday where he was jailed for three years and handed a fiveyear non-harassment order against both women.

Sheriff Alison Stirling also placed Delacruz on the sex offenders’ register for an indefinite period.

Defending solicitor Cameron Tait told the court his client was a Spanish national and had been born female in Madrid in 1983.

Mr Tait said his client studied for a degree in Mississippi in the US before moving to Scotland in 2010 to look for employment.

The brief added Delacruz had developed “a male appearance” when he was aged eight before officially changing his name to Carlos when he turned 16.

The court heard Delacruz’s gender is now officially recognised as male and his gender is stated as male on his birth certificate, passport and Spanish identity card, though he has not gone through the full tran- sition to male. Mr Tait also told the court Delacruz had used a prosthetic penis during the lovemaking sessions with the two women and that “he considers it to be part of him”.

Sheriff Stirling told Delacruz he had caused “physical and psychological harm” to both women byrepeatedlysexually assaulting them.

Both women said they believed Delacruz had a real penis and that he refused to allow them to see him naked and always performed in bed with the lights out.

Fiscal depute Kirsten Cockburn told the court Delacruz had been in a relationship with both women at separate times between May 27, 2013 and May 14 last year.