Sailor groped Navy girl, 17, in basketball game, court martial told
A SCOTS Royal Navy warfare specialist developed an ‘unhealthy interest’ in a teenage colleague and sexually assaulted her during a basketball game, a court martial heard yesterday.
Leading Seaman Andrew Hallimond allegedly became obsessed with the 17-year-old and on one occasion shocked her by saying: ‘It’s nice to see you have red underwear in your drawer.’
It was claimed at the hearing that Hallimond, from Edinburgh, had become so infatuated with her that he was ‘unable to control himself’. He also slapped her bottom in front of colleagues, in lifts, in offices
‘It felt like it went on forever’
and in corridors ‘on a daily basis’ and ‘could not keep his hands off her’, the court was told.
The alleged abuse began after the 38year-old – nicknamed Scotty – is said to have grabbed his colleague, attached to submarine-hunting frigate HMS Richmond with him, from behind while playing basketball and groped her.
The teen said it happened so often she ‘expected it whenever she came in to work’ at HMNB Devonport, Plymouth, and claimed there were so many comments she could not remember them all.
on another occasion, when a group of sailors were socialising in Hallimond’s lodgings, the court heard he asked the teenager if it was true that ‘women wear red underwear when they want to have sex’.
Prosecuting, Rupert Gregory told Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire: ‘This defendant developed a rather unhealthy interest in the victim. He appeared not to be able to control himself when in her presence. He simply could not keep his hands off her and whenever the opportunity arose he would grab and slap her bottom.’
on one occasion, the pair were playing basketball with a group of colleagues. They were on opposite teams and Hallimond was ‘marking’ the alleged victim.
Mr Gregory said: ‘During that game the defendant was “checking” the victim – tackling her. At one point, rather than try to take the ball out of her hands, his approach was to grab with both his hands her breasts and hold them there for a short period.’
The alleged victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the hearing: ‘He touched my breasts and I knew it was wrong.
‘It was a grab, it was obvious. It was not an accident. It felt like it went on forever.’
Defending, Michael Green suggested Hallimond was simply being ‘ultra-competitive’ and because he was older, and slower, than the other players he had run into her by accident.
on another occasion, the court heard, the teenager was on the basketball court with only Hallimond when she bent down to put her water bottle on the floor and he slapped her bottom.
The basketball incidents were followed by a ‘bottom slap’ in the Underwater Warfare office in front of a colleague, it was said.
The teenager said she did not know Hallimond that well and was shocked by his behaviour.
She added: ‘There were constant innuendos coming towards me and just the way he was around me generally – it was obviously noticed by other people. The innuendos were usually made to the room, but as the only female there it was clearly directed at me.
‘It made me feel uncomfortable because I didn’t really know who he was.’
A fellow sailor and friend of the young woman told the court Hallimond ‘constantly’ talked about touching her breast, in an ‘excited... giddy’ way.
Able Seaman Charlie Newcombe said: ‘He found it comical.’
Leading Seaman Hallimond is charged with four counts of sexual assault. He denies the charges.
The trial continues.