Cleared, lesbian Navy off icer who tried to seduce married captain
A SCOTS Navy officer who showered her female superior with love messages in an attempt to seduce her has been cleared of harassment.
Commander Sally-Anne Bagnall was accused of ‘crossing the line’ by ‘relentlessly pursuing’ Surgeon Captain Elizabeth Crowson and sending her sexualised text messages.
A military court was told Commander Bagnall ‘refused’ to accept that her boss was not a lesbian and insisted she was ‘in denial about her sexuality’ and ‘suppressing her true feelings about her’.
Commander Bagnall, originally from Inverness, admitted annotating Captain Crowson’s work emails and confronting her with them, claiming that within them she had used ‘coded’ words to send her ‘hidden love messages’.
The 51-year- old sent Captain Crowson messages about her ‘sex drive’ and was alleged to have ‘crossed the line’ in her behaviour towards her.
Captain Crowson, from Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire, said she felt ‘scared and frightened’ and branded her second in command ‘nutty’.
However, Commander Bagnall was yesterday cleared of harassment following a hearing at Bulford Military Court, Wiltshire.
Commander Bagnall had argued that Captain Crowson was mutually seeking a relationship with her, and claimed that her boss had eyed her up, made sexual innuendos and wanted to start an affair.
Dingle Clark, defending, said Commander Bagnall’s efforts to start a relationship were ‘miles away’ from amounting to harassment and said the issue should have resulted in a more minor complaint instead.
Commander Bagnall was accused of harassing the married mother of three while the two medics worked at the Defence Medical Services base at Whittington in Staffordshire.
Yesterday, a panel of five senior Navy officers deliberated for two hours and 20 minutes following the five-day hearing.
During the proceedings, Commander Bagnall claimed: ‘There was a mutuality to it. I saw it as two people pursuing a relationship. I don’t think I did anything that was not reasonable from what she said.
‘I was pursuing a romantic relationship and I believe she was doing the same. I thought she wanted to have an affair and have a deeper connection.’
She also claimed Captain Crowson flashed diamond earrings at her, eyed her up at work and was ‘testing her for an affair’.
Captain Crowson strenuously denied all of her junior officer’s claims. She previously told the hearing: ‘I was always very clear about my sexuality. I’ve never had any leanings in that direction whatsoever. She refused to accept my assertions that I was not gay or looking to start a romantic relationship with her. She refused to accept them, no matter how clearly I stated them.’
Commander Bagnall, who lives near the Defence Medical Services base, now serves on board HMS Nelson in Portsmouth.
She trained as a nurse in Dundee and worked at a hospital in Stirling before joining the Navy.
The medic has 23 years’ service and is a veteran of Afghanistan, the hearing was told.
Captain Crowson is now commanding officer of the Institute of Naval Medicine in Gosport, Hampshire. A Royal Navy biography of her states ‘she enjoys exploring the hills and glens of Western Scotland’.
‘Scared and frightened’