Drunken major is not guilty of raping captain
A SCOTS Army major accused of raping a female captain was yesterday cleared after telling a court martial he could not remember having sex because he was so drunk.
The trial heard that when the two officers woke up in bed together after a Burns supper, neither could recall having had sex.
When Major Gregor Beaton, 33, was quizzed by Royal Military Police, he even suggested he might be the victim.
After a panel of senior officers cleared the Afghanistan veteran, the judge said Parliament should review the law around cases when neither party can remember what has happened.
Judge Advocate General Jeff Blackett told Major Beaton: ‘You have been found not guilty by this board. It is intolerable that this case has taken so long to get to court and that is unacceptable.
‘This was an unusual case because neither party can remember having sex.’ He said
Parliament should ‘look again’ at the area of law surrounding cases where neither party can remember what happened, adding: ‘There must be a better way of dealing with these cases.’
As the five-person panel recorded its verdict, Major Beaton, a Sandhurst graduate from the 14th Regiment, Royal Artillery, broke down in tears.
The three-day trial heard that the female officer had been so drunk during the Burns Night supper on a military base that a female colleague had to put her to bed.
She said she was horrified when she woke naked next to Major Beaton with ‘absolutely no memory’ of what had happened between them the night before. The woman had been ‘flirting’ with another soldier throughout the evening and at first thought it was him, but when she saw it was Major Beaton, who she
‘I did not want sexual contact’
barely knew, she panicked. Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire heard that the captain, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed she then had a ‘flashback’ of someone ‘dragging her hips from behind’. When she confronted father-of-one Major Beaton, he said he was ‘99 per cent sure’ nothing had happened.
After being arrested, he told investigators he was so drunk he could not recall what had taken place, adding: ‘I did not want sexual contact. I did not initiate it.
‘I do not remember having sex with her. You do not have sex with people who are that drunk.’ When told his DNA was found inside the woman, he suggested that meant he must have been forced into having sex and should consider making a complaint himself.
During the police investigation, his Army lawyer advised him to give a ‘no comment’ interview, but Major Beaton insisted he had ‘nothing to hide’. He said he had chatted to the woman, who had wandered into his room after being put to bed by a friend because she was so drunk.
He told the court he then took her back to her own dorm and they chatted for a while about the soldier she had been ‘flirting’ with, before he fell asleep in an armchair.
The court heard that during the celebrations, Major Beaton drank two glasses of beer, a few glasses of white wine and a small glass of port. As the evening went on he also drank Jagermeister and at least five measures of whisky.
During the ‘lively’ evening, the captain drank red wine, Jagermeister, prosecco and whisky.
The panel, made up of one woman and four men, took just under two hours of deliberation to clear Major Beaton of a single count of rape.