Recruiting sergeant ‘ raped Army cadets’
AN Army recruiting sergeant abused his power over cadets to rape and molest females including a girl of 15, a court heard yesterday.
Edwin Mee, 45, allegedly targeted 11 cadets who dreamed of being soldiers and bullied or groomed them for sex.
He raped one recruit after twisting her arm and telling her he had been jailed for fi ghting over a girl, the jury was told.
The woman, in her 20s, suffered an ectopic pregnancy and collapsed at hospital, the court heard.
Mee smacked the girls’ bottoms to see how far he could go, the jury heard.
One alleged victim, now 23, wept yesterday as she recalled feeling “embarrassed and shocked”.
He allegedly asked about her love life and if she would “date other races”.
He also made a joke about her quiffed hairstyle saying it would “attract the Taliban”, the woman said.
He was alleged to have told a girl whose buttocks he slapped: “It’s you who needs the Army.”
One alleged
victim
vom- ited after he kissed her on the lips, Southwark Crown Court in London heard.
Scots- born Mee, known as Jock, denies three rapes and 18 assaults on alleged victims aged 15 to 25 at a military base in Croydon, south London from October 2010 to September 2011.
The divorced father- of- fi ve from Croydon worked for the Army Careers Information Service and took advantage of his job to isolate vulnerable and young victims who were born outside the UK, the jury was told.
Bully
Rosina Cottage, QC, prosecuting, said: “This case concerns the abuse of trust and power by this man in order to bully and groom young women.
“He gauged their vulnerability in order to speak about sex to them, to touch them and, most serious of all, to rape those over whom he had established the strongest control.
“The inference is that he deliberately targeted these young women.”
The trial continues.