Female captain forced me into sex, says major accused of rape

A SCOTS Army major accused of raping a female captain after a Burns supper told investigators he was the victim.

Gregor Beaton claimed he was too drunk to remember having sex with the woman and she must have assaulted him, a court martial heard.

When he was arrested on suspicion of rape and interviewed by Royal Military Police, he told them he was so drunk he could not recall what had happened.

The Afghanistan veteran, who served in Helmand Province, added: ‘I did not want sexual contact. I did not initiate it.’

When told there was DNA evidence proving he had sex with the woman, Beaton, 33, insisted he must have been forced into the act – and said he should make a complaint himself.

The court heard that he added: ‘She has assaulted me. That’s my understanding. I did not have sex with her.’

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, previously told the court she had been horrified when she woke up naked in her bed next to Beaton the morning after the drunken Burns supper, with ‘absolutely no memory’ of what had happened.

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

The court heard she confronted Beaton, a Sandhurst graduate of the 14th Regiment, Royal Artillery, who said he was ‘99 per cent sure’ nothing had happened.

Giving evidence yesterday at Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire, Beaton said he ‘didn’t have anything to hide’ and had simply chatted to the woman, who had wandered into his room after previously being put to bed by a friend because she was so drunk. He told the court he had taken her back to her own dorm.

There, they chatted for a while about the soldier she had been ‘flirting’ with, before he fell asleep in an armchair, he said. He claimed he woke when the woman went into the bathroom, then sat on the end of her bed and wrapped himself in a blanket but accidentally fell asleep.

He told the court that, the next day, she had quizzed him about what had happened during the night. He said: ‘She kept asking and said, “Are you positive?”.

‘I said, “I am 99 per cent sure we did not have sex”.’

Fern Russell, defending, asked Beaton why he had used that specific language. He replied: ‘From long experience I know there are no absolutes in this world.

‘For years, even before I went to [the base where the incident occurred] whenever people ask me, “Are you sure?”, I have always said, “I am 99 per cent sure”.’

When the woman asked him again if he was sure they had not had sex, Beaton offered to go into town with her to get her the morning after pill.

He explained that he had a daughter, who is now eight, through an unplanned pregnancy and he had wanted to help the woman. He said: ‘I offered help because perhaps she would be less embarrassed to go with someone she didn’t know.’

Beaton was arrested in the early hours of the next morning and denied anything had happened.

He told the court: ‘I had nothing to hide, I had no reason to. I knew there hadn’t [been a rape].’

In his initial interview, Beaton said: ‘I do not remember having sex with her. You do not have sex with people who are that drunk.’

He told the court: ‘I couldn’t dispute the scientific and forensic evidence... I just became an absolute wreck as soon as I was told sexual activity had taken place.’

Prosecutor William Peters asked Beaton: ‘Your account that this

‘99 per cent sure we didn’t have sex’

‘You made it up, didn’t you?’

happened without your knowledge is pure fiction isn’t it? You made it up, didn’t you?’

Beaton replied: ‘I have not made up anything I have said. I could say what I thought happened but that would be hearsay.’

He added: ‘My assessment is irrelevant. I didn’t want to have sex with her. You need to be sure that whatever it is you are doing and whoever it is you are doing it with, you have consent to do so.’

The court heard that during the Burns Night celebrations, Beaton had two beer highballs, a few glasses of white wine, a small glass of port, Jägermeister and at least five measures of whisky.

Beaton denies one charge of rape. The trial continues.