Jailed, sergeant who groped his comrade’s girlfriend as she slept
A SOLDIER has been jailed for four years for sexually assaulting a comrade’s girlfriend as the couple slept in a bed together.
Sergeant Deswarao Gunputh groped the young woman from the end of her and her soldier boyfriend’s bed following a drunken night out.
the woman, a civilian in her 20s, told a court martial she was ‘shocked’ when she woke at 2am to feel someone molesting her while her boyfriend lay fast asleep beside her. She said she felt her attacker’s ‘stiff’ hair which had ‘too much product’ as he crouched down at the end of the bed.
Gunputh denied assaulting the woman, insisting she had been ‘flirting’ with him on the night out and claiming his DNA was transferred to her as they ‘held hands’. But the court convicted Gunputh, of 1 regiment Army Air corps of sexual assault following the incident at Wattisham Airfield, Suffolk.
he has now been jailed for four years and dismissed from the Army.
his trial at Bulford Military court in Wiltshire last month heard that Gunputh drank tequila shots with the man and his girlfriend before heading to Ipswich for more drinks. they later all headed back to the base.
the woman told the court: ‘Me and [my boyfriend] went back to his block... I don’t remember going to bed because I had been drinking.
‘I was woken up by the feeling of someone touching me. It was uncomfortable, strange and worrying...
‘I was not fully awake. I realised [my boyfriend] was next to me, so it must have been a third person in the room. I had my hand out searching and I touched their hair. I was shocked because I knew it couldn’t be [my boyfriend] and there shouldn’t have been anyone else in the room.
‘they jumped back and left and I heard a door shut. I was trying to wake [my boyfriend] up to talk to me and help – but he was in a deep sleep.’
the woman added: ‘I went into the bathroom and all I remember is sitting on the floor and crying.’ her boyfriend reported the sexual assault the following morning.