Major ‘raped’ officer at Burns night bash

Court martial over dorm incident

A BRITISH Army Major raped a female officer following a boozy Burns night celebration, a court martial heard yesterday.

The alleged victim was said to be horrified to wake up next to Major Gregor Beaton with “absolutely no memory” of what had happened.

She woke Beaton, of the 14th Regiment, Royal Artillery, but he denied they had sex.

The court heard Beaton claimed she had wandered drunkenly into his dorm and he took her back to her room where they chatted before he fell asleep. But the woman asked for a medical examination and Beaton’s DNA was found, prompting an investigation. In an interview, she said: “I had a weird flashback in my mind of somebody. [They were] dragging my hips from behind. Dragging me up the bed by my hips.” The woman dressed and visited a man she had flirted with that night who told her to ask Beaton what had happened. She said: “I went back into my room and I woke Greg up and said, ‘Why are you in my bed?’ I described the flashback to him and said, ‘Did anything happen?’ He said, ‘No, nothing happened.’” Bulford Military Court, Wiltshire, heard that earlier in the evening a female Major had put her to bed, dressing her in tartan pyjamas and a pale T-shirt.

The officer claimed she was naked when she woke. Later that day she again begged Beaton for the truth, but he allegedly told her she wore a blue nightie to bed.

In her interview she said: “I was crying and I said, ‘Please, please, please just tell me what happened’. He said we were just chatting, nothing happened. I was really panicked and upset.” She told the court that later that day Beaton asked her if she wanted his help to get the morning after pill.

Prosecuting, William Peters said: “At the Burns night dinner she got very drunk and had to be put to bed. She had no sexual interest in the defendant whatsoever. She was falling down drunk.”

Mr Peters also told the court that DNA indicated sexual intercourse was “extremely” likely to have taken place.

Major Beaton denies one charge of rape. The threeday trial continues today.

ON BURNS NIGHT INCIDENT

HEARING Barracks