Navy sailor ‘lifted colleague’s ‘Bully’ Royal Mint HR chief top as she video-called aunt’ in sex discrimination row

A ROYAL Navy sailor burst into a female colleague’s room and lifted up her top while she was on a video call with her aunt, a court martial has heard.

The servicewoman said she was “shocked” and that her relative was “in disbelief ” when Able Rate Ben Lynch, 33, exposed her breasts during the video call before bursting into laughter.

The alleged incident occurred at HMS Seahawk, a Royal Navy airbase in Cornwall, where Mr Lynch is also accused of assaulting the same sailor at a bar, smacking another colleague’s bottom as she went up the stairs and “smirking” after molesting a third colleague in her room.

The accused, described by colleagues as “loud” and “inappropriate” when drinking alcohol, faces two counts of sexual assault and two counts of disgraceful conduct of an indecent kind.

Col Jim Carmichael, prosecuting, said the evidence against Mr Lynch was “compelling”.

The woman told the court: “I was on Facetime with my aunt, I was laying in bed. I’m talking away, she’s asking how my weekend was and Ben came over to me and lifted my top up and said, ‘Oh, boobies’.”

Mr Lynch faces a charge of sexual assault against the same woman for allegedly grabbing her breasts while saying goodbye to colleagues at a bar, and a further count of disgraceful conduct for chasing a different colleague up the stairs and smacking her bottom four times, stopping when she reached her room, the court martial heard.

He is also accused of assault by penetration of a third colleague and faces a charge of sexual assault in relation to that offence. The colleague said he banged on her door late at night after they had been drinking at a bar.

In her police interview, she said: “He sat on the edge of the bed, we were generally chatting and having a laugh and he came and laid next to me.”

She added: “I can’t remember exactly how it happened but he put his fingers in my vagina and I quickly pushed him off me.”

Mr Lynch denies all offences and the week-long trial continues.

A ROYAL Mint boss has accused the company of discrimination after she quit her £123,000-a-year job then unsuccessfully tried to revoke her resignation.

Sarah Bradley, a human resources director, quit in June 2022 after she was allegedly informed that a colleague had described her as a “bully”.

But on July 11 the 57-year-old tried to rescind her notice handed to Anne Jessopp, the Royal Mint’s chief executive,on the grounds that it was an “impulsive decision made purely out of emotion, anxiety, and humiliation” – only to be told that wasn’t possible.

Mrs Bradley, right, claimed that a change of medication had led to a poor state of mind and when she offered her resignation it was against a background of “work pressure and ill health”. She claimed indirect sex discrimination on the grounds that her “impulsive” resignation was linked to menopause symptoms and said that a man would not have been treated in the same way and been forced out of a top job at the 1.100-year-old company based in Llantrisant, South Wales.

Mrs Bradley told the tribunal she had a meeting with Mrs Jessopp telling her she needed help but later that month she was placed on “gardening leave” and her access to company systems revoked. She filed a grievance which was dismissed. According to court papers the Mint said there was “no evidence” that her disability affected her from making a “well-reasoned decision”. The hearing, being held in Cardiff, will resume next month.