She was asleep and drunk... I had sex with her
What Navy man in rape trial texted to mother after drinking session
A ROYAL Navy officer accused of raping a woman as she slept later texted his mother to say: ‘I had sex with her when I shouldn’t have.’
In a series of messages home, Callum Fennell admitted his alleged victim was ‘asleep and drunk’, a court heard yesterday.
The 25-year-old also texted the young woman to apologise and admit he was a ‘vile disgusting monster’.
The father of one, who has a history of sexual addiction, is said to have attacked the sleeping woman at 4am after drinks on April 1 last year.
The naval officer denies rape and sexual assault.
But a jury at Plymouth Crown Court was read a series of texts sent by Fennell to his mother the following day.
The exchange started with him saying: ‘Hey mum, everything OK at home?’ He then texts: ‘Mum I feel awful mum, I have no one to talk to until I come home.’
He later added: ‘Mum, I had sex with her last night when I shouldn’t have.’
‘I feel like a vile disgusting monster’
When Fennell’s mother replied: ‘She could have said no’, he added: ‘No, she was asleep and drunk –I f ***** up.’
The officer, who is based in Portsmouth, is said to have texted his alleged victim hours after the assault, saying: ‘I’m so sorry for what I did last night. I feel like a monster for doing it. A vile disgusting monster.’
Prosecutor Peter Coombe told the court that the alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, awoke to find that her underwear and pyjama bottoms had been pulled down and the defendant on top of her.
Yesterday the court heard how she cried herself to sleep after the attack – which left her so dumbstruck she was unable to pull up her nightclothes.
In a recorded interview with police shown to the jury, she said: ‘I was in such a state of shock, I could not pull them up. I was mortified. I was in that much state of shock I could not speak to him.’
She told detectives: ‘All I did was pretty much just cry to sleep.
‘I woke up at 8am the next morning and I still had my pyjama bottoms down. I was just shocked and shaken.’
The alleged victim later sent a message to Fennell where she said he had ‘practically raped’ her.
She said: ‘At what point did you think it was acceptable to do that to me when I was asleep?’ Mr Coombe told the court that Fennell hoped to ‘placate’ her when he apologised by text.
He said the officer had also targeted the woman on a previous occasion while she was sleeping.
‘She says the Friday before this incident, she had woken up in bed to find Mr Fennell with his hands in her trousers’, Mr Coombe said.
Defending Fennell, Richard Onslow suggested that the woman had ‘made noises’ to encourage him. Mr Onslow asked her: ‘You make noises suggesting that you might be ready for sexual activity. You keep moving, giving the appearance that you are enjoying it?’ The woman replied: ‘How could I when I was asleep?’
Jurors heard that Fennell had attended a group up to twice a week to curb his sex addiction. He claims the sex was consensual and denies one count of rape and one of sexual assault.
Three other sexual assault charges have been dropped by the prosecution because of a lack of evidence. The trial continues.