Major is accused of raping woman captain

AN Army major raped a woman captain who had become so drunk during a Burns night supper she had to be put to bed early, a court martial heard yesterday.

The woman was allegedly horrified when she woke up naked next to Major Gregor Beaton with ‘absolutely no memory’ of what had happened.

She had been ‘flirting’ with another soldier throughout the evening and at first thought it was him but when she saw it was Beaton, who she barely knew, she panicked.

The court heard the captain, who cannot be named for legal reasons, then suddenly had a ‘flashback’ of someone ‘dragging her hips from behind’.

Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire heard that earlier on in the ‘lively’ evening, a woman major had put the alleged victim to bed, dressing her in a pair of tartan pyjamas and a pale T-shirt. She had been drinking red wine, Jagermeister liqueur, Prosecco and whisky.

But when she woke, she was naked. She later woke Beaton, of the 14th Regiment, Royal Artillery, but he denied anything sexual had taken place.

The court heard he said the woman had wandered drunkenly into his room and he had simply taken her back to her room where they chatted before he fell asleep in her bed.

Although he said he was ‘99 per cent sure’ nothing had happened, the woman requested a medical examination later that day. Beaton’s DNA was discovered and an investigation begun.

In an interview given five days after the alleged assault, the woman said: ‘I had a weird flashback in my mind of somebody.

‘[They were] dragging my hips from behind. Dragging me up the bed by my hips.’

After getting dressed she went to see the male colleague she had been flirting with while she was drunk and he told her to go and ask Beaton what had actually happened.

She said: ‘I went back into my room and I woke Greg up and said “What on earth are you doing in my room? Why are you in my bed?”

‘I described the flashback to him and said did anything happen? he said “no, no nothing happened”.’

When she said she confronted him again later that day and begged him to tell her the truth, he allegedly told her she was wearing a blue nightie when they went to bed.

In her interview she said: ‘I was crying and I said “please, please, please just tell me what happened”.

‘he said we were just chatting and that’s all, nothing happened. I was really panicked and upset and said “If we slept together just tell me, I can handle it. I’m not on any form of contraception, just tell me”.’

She told the court that later that day Beaton came into her room and asked her if she wanted him to take her into town to get the morningafter pill. It was then that she decided to have the examination.

Prosecuting, William Peters told the hearing: ‘At the Burns night dinner she got very drunk and had to be put to bed.

‘She had no sexual interest in the defendant whatsoever. She was falling down drunk.’

Mr Peters told the court that the doctor who had carried out the examination of the woman said sexual intercourse was ‘extremely’ likely to have taken place. Beaton denies a single charge of rape. The trial continues.

‘I described the flashback to him’