Sailor, 25, cleared of raping woman while she slept
A ROYAL Navy sailor was cleared yesterday of raping a woman as she slept.
Able seaman Callum Fennell, 25, had earlier cried in the dock while telling the jury that he believed she had consented to sex.
They took just 30 minutes to acquit him of raping and sexually assaulting her.
The sailor – who had previously attended a support group for sex addicts – was accused of attacking the woman in bed at 4am on April 1 last year.
Father- of- one Mr Fennell, based in Portsmouth, said that he believed she was awake because she was making noises and had moved her body towards him.
He said that he did not find out about the complaint of rape until the next morning when he received an angry text from the woman’s mother.
Releasing him, Recorder Phillip Mott QC said: ‘You are discharged. You can carry on with the Navy.’
Plymouth Crown Court heard that Mr Fennell had served with the Navy for seven years, mainly on Portsmouth-based warships. His commanding officer gave a glowing character reference to the jury. The court heard that Mr Fennell had attended a support group for sex addicts last year after he was caught looking at pornography.
Mr Fennell hugged a supporter as he left court. The jury previously heard he had labelled himself ‘vile and disgusting’ in texts sent to the woman after the alleged rape.
He also messaged his mother saying: ‘Mum, I had sex with her last night when I shouldn’t have.’
But on the witness stand, he said he only developed doubts about whether or not the woman was awake when he received a message from her mother.
The alleged victim had gone home and told her mother – who sent angry texts to Mr Fennell threatening him with police action.
Mr Fennell told the court: ‘From
‘I didn’t know what to do’
my point of view she was awake and willing to do what we were doing. In my eyes she was awake. She knew what I was doing – the way she was moving.’
Mr Fennell’s defence barrister Richard Onslow asked him: ‘Did you have sex with her thinking she was not agreeing to it?’
Mr Fennell, who was serving on board Plymouth-based HMS Monmouth at the time of the alleged rape, replied: ‘No.’
He claimed that after the woman’s mother texted him, he became confused.
He told the court: ‘I was in bits and didn’t know what to do.
‘All that was going through my head at the time was her mum saying to me about her being asleep and drunk.’