Sergeant major ‘attacked female soldier at wild barracks party’
Lesbian accuses him of drunken assault
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A SERGEANT major sexually assaulted a lesbian soldier after a debauched party at an Army barracks, a court martial heard yesterday. Warrant officer Timothy Jones, 40, had been drinking with his squadron before taking part in a bisexual group sex party fuelled by Jagermeister liqueurs, port and vodka.
He allegedly then ordered others out, locked the door, climbed into bed with the 21year- old female private and attacked her while she slept.
The assault is claimed to have happened at Buckley Barracks in Hullavington, Wiltshire, last May. After the alleged victim reported him, Jones was interviewed under caution and charged with sexual assault.
Jones, who is married and has retired from service after being given an honourable discharge, faces prison if convicted by a panel of his peers.
Bulford Military Court heard yesterday that 13 soldiers from 9 Theatre Logistic Regiment had a barbecue during the afternoon of May 22 last year before they carried on drinking beer, Jagermeister, port and vodka in one of their rooms.
Seven soldiers went to the ‘after party’ where female soldiers took off their tops, played loud music and danced until about 2.30am.
Prosecutor David Phillips told the court: ‘Alcohol was consumed by all. During the party the accused kissed another male soldier and started to undress. He was told to put his clothes back on.’
After asking the other men to leave the room ‘to allow the girls some privacy’, Jones locked the door and stayed with the two women, a private and a corporal, before they went to sleep.
The private claims she woke to find she had been undressed
‘She broke down in tears’
from the waist down and Jones was sexually assaulting her.
Mr Phillips said: ‘She looked down and saw the accused. She was naked from the waist down.’
The court heard the female soldier woke up her partner and took her to the toilet, where she broke down in t ears. She reported the attack to another sergeant the next morning.
She said she had been drunk during the party, having consumed vodka, about four shots of port, and three ‘Jagerbombs’, a mixture of the spirit and an energy drink.
The soldier said she and her partner, who had split up two months earlier before rekindling their romance that day, went to sleep first.
‘She laid down on the bed to go to sleep and so did I. I knew Sergeant Jones was in the room and he just sat at the bottom of the bed, he was awake at the time,’ she added.
‘I know I did not take my bottoms off and I did not know how they came off.’
The woman’s partner, to whom she is now married, told the court that the alleged victim had woken her in the night. They went to the toilet together and the alleged victim was ‘a mess’, she said.
Jones denies one charge of assault and suggests the two women, who cannot be named, ‘set him up’.
The trial heard that he had previously chastised the alleged victim when she and colleagues were being ‘mischievous’.
Defence barrister Jonathan Simpson said the party was a ‘hot night’ during which Jones ‘got his man boobs out’ and ‘was showing everyone his body’.
He told the woman: ‘Because you got into bed, it gave you and your ex-girlfriend an opportunity to stitch up and fabricate allegations against Sergeant Major Jones.’
The 9 Theatre Logistic Regiment’s role is to oversee the supply chain on operations, making sure kit and equipment reach the frontline. It is part of the Royal Logistic Corps.
The trial continues.