Cambridge Crown Court, where the accused soldiers face trial for the sexual assaults committed last weekendFlickr: Bill Thompson

Cambridge City Council has agreed to install temporary streetlights in response to a petition led by the Tab and backed by Cambridge MP Julian Huppert.

The temporary lighting will be replaced will permanently by ‘heritage-style’ columns in the first weeks of December, in keeping with similar schemes across Cambridge.

The petition, which has so far amassed over 1,800 signatures, was started in response to the recent sex attacks across Cambridge, culminating in a series of sexual assaults against women and the rape of a man in Christ's Pieces.

The Ministry of Defence is reportedly reviewing whether to continue the training programme, which proposed to train 2,000 cadets, after five of its members were charged with sex offences in Cambridge.

Libyan cadets Ibrahim Naji El Maarfi, 20, and Mohammed Abdalsalam, 27, appeared at Cambridge Magistrates' Court last week and admitted two counts of sexual assault. They are awaiting sentence.

Khaled El Azibi, 18, was been charged with three counts of sexual assault linked to the same incident but has yet to enter a plea.

Earlier this week, Moktar Ali Saad Mahmoud, 33, and Ibrahim Abogutila, 22, have also been charged with the rape of a man on Christ’s Pieces. Their case was adjourned until next Tuesday and they were remanded in custody.

The aftermath of the assaults has touched Westminster, and today Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs that Libyan soldiers training in Cambridgeshire should not be granted asylum in the UK.

According to the BBC, around five of the first group of 300 soldiers training at Bassingbourn Barracks in Cambridgeshire have made applications for asylum.

Cameron was confronted during Prime Ministers’ Questions by the MP for South Cambridgeshire, Andrew Lansley, about the lack of discipline displayed by the Libyan soldiers.

The events were described as “completely unacceptable” by the Prime Minister, who also stated that he had “asked the chief of the defence staff for a report into this."

Cameron also stated that the training of the Libyan cadets has been cut short with the group returning to Libya “in the coming days”, despite the fact that their training was scheduled to finish at the end of the month.

Students demand a safer Cambridge

Libyan soldiers charged with rape of man in Christ's Pieces