A SCOTTISH regiment has been called in to deal with Libyan soldiers being trained at an English army base as five of the foreign troops appeared in court accused of rape and other sex assaults.

Troops from 2 Scots, the Royal Highland Fusiliers, had leave cancelled so they could back up military police struggling to control Libyan trainees who defied orders to remain at ­Bassingbourn Barracks in Cambridgeshire.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has now been forced to scrap the project after the court appearances.

Soldiers Moktar Ali Saad Mahmoud, 33, and Ibrahim Abogutila, 22, appeared at Cambridge Magistrates yesterday charged with raping a man in his 20s in a park in the university city on October 26.

Three other Libyans based at the barracks also appeared at the court in connection with alleged sex attacks on women in the city.

Two of them have already pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two women after they stole bicycles to reach Cambridge from the base 14 miles away.

Up to 2,000 soldiers had been due to undergo basic infantry and junior command training at Bassingbourn as part of an ­agreement reached at last year's G8 summit.

The Libyans soldiers were being trained by men from 3 Scots, the Black Watch, tasked with providing them with basic infantry skills and military leadership training.

The MoD said more than 300 Libyan Army cadets from Bassingbourn would be sent home early.

A spokesman said: "Training was initially expected to last until the end of November but we have agreed with the Libyan Government that it is best for all involved to bring forward the training completion date.

"The recruits will be returning to Libya in the coming days.

"And as part of our ongoing support for the Libyan government, we will review how best to train Libyan security forces - including whether training further tranches of recruits in the UK is the best way forward."

Andrew Lansley, Tory MP for South Cambridgeshire, who had called on the MoD to send the Libyan troops home, said he regretted the rolling 15-month scheme had not worked as had been hoped.

He added: "It is clear that the stipulation that there was to be no unauthorised exit from the base has not been adhered to and the consequences have been unacceptable.

"The purpose has not met its objectives, nor have MoD lived up to the promises made to us."

He said no further groups of military trainees should be brought to the UK from Libya.

Bassingbourn, which was used in Stanley Kubrick's film Full metal Jacket, closed as a UK military training camp in 2012.