Man who choked 12-year-old girl during rape in Edinburgh jailed

A man who choked a 12-year-old girl while he raped her as she slept after posing as a teenager on a social media app has been jailed.

Christian Lambert messaged the girl on Snapchat, claiming to be a boy just a few years older than the child before attacking her at a house in Edinburgh’s Slateford last year.

The 21-year-old was assessed as being at “high risk” of further sexual offending after pleading guilty to raping a child at the High Court.

He was jailed for three years and four months for the attack and placed on the sex offenders register for life.

The court heard Lambert, of Slateford, had known the girl for about a week after meeting online.

Prosecutor Leanne McQuillian said the girl had contacted Lambert, whom she knew as Chris, and believed him to be 14 or 15-years-old.

Lambert met the girl in Edinburgh on 27 March last year before returning to the flat where he was staying.

They briefly left the property at about midnight to visit a local park, before returning.

The girl was said to have a “very vague recollection” of what happened, but remembered “repeatedly falling asleep”.

She said she had been raped by Lambert and that he had “choked her”.

The girl told police the following day and Lambert was arrested a short time later.

Defence advocate Graham Robertson said Lambert, who admitted the offence at a hearing last month, had expressed remorse for his actions.

He told the court his client was “anxious to plead guilty”.

Sentencing, Lord Summers told Lambert: “You took advantage of her age and her vulnerability. She did not have the capacity to consent and I note that you choked her during sex.

“I conclude that this offence is of such gravity that the imposition of a custodial sentence is inevitable.

“This is in order to punish you and to deter others.”