Officer ‘groped woman on tour of nuclear sub’
A ROYAL Navy lieutenant groped a woman colleague’s breast while giving a tour of a Trident nuclear missile submarine to sea cadets, a court martial heard yesterday.
lieutenant Basil Purdue, 26, carried out the alleged assault as he chaperoned the group around HMS Vanguard with help from the woman.
He told her he was going to come to see her later after spending the evening drinking at the bar, the court was told.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told him not to and then Purdue sexually assaulted her by groping her breast.
Then, when they were walking the cadets back to a coach, Purdue allegedly told the woman: ‘I’m going to **** you later.’
Purdue denies the attack. Portsmouth Military Court heard he was hosting a tour for sea cadets on HMS Vanguard in Helensburgh, Scotland, and the woman offered to help because she was on duty that weekend in February last year.
Purdue, based at HMS Excellent in Portsmouth, had met the woman just over a month before at a Royal Navy social.
Captain Alison Towler, prosecuting, said the pair had not spoken much before the incident and exchanged just a few texts to organise the tour. She added: ‘The allegation is fairly straightforward; last year she was assisting Purdue with a visit to HMS Vanguard. They were in a passageway together having conversation about what they were doing that evening and during that time, Purdue reached out and touched her breast.’
The woman claimed that while she and Purdue were giving the group of 16 a tour, a ship protection exercise took place – meaning they had to pause the tour.
Purdue and the woman were out of sight of the group and began talking about their plans and she told him she was going to spend the night watching films and eating pizza with friends. She told the court Purdue then told her he was going for drinks at a bar, and said that after he was finished drinking he was going to join her and her friends.
‘I told him “you can’t just invite yourself to someone’s cabin, they’re our plans that I made with my friends and you can’t just invite yourself”,’ she said.
‘We were talking and a little bit close together and he groped my right breast. My initial reaction was ‘what the **** are you doing?’ It was for about two seconds until he realised the look on my face.
‘That evening I met my friends
‘Career in jeopardy’
as planned, I broke into tears and told them what happened.’
Purdue, who denies one count of sexual assault, said the woman ‘wanted to damage his career’ because he had previously stuck up for her when sailors shared suggestive pictures of her. He said she had been embarrassed by him reporting the incident to senior officers, who then assembled the base’s company to warn them about bullying women staff.
Donald Findlay QC, defending Purdue, said: ‘Is this really a man who puts his navy career in jeopardy for the sake of touching a woman’s breast over a jumper and uniform? He is a married man, of good character and of no previous offences.’
The trial continues.