Rape accused Navy captain tells court: Cadet gave me eye

THE captain of a Royal Navy ship accused of raping a teenage cadet yesterday told a court his alleged victim gave him ‘the eye’.

Lieutenant Rhys Christie claimed the 18-year-old had rubbed his leg and later gave him a ‘wry smile’ which he took as consent.

A military court has heard the teenager, who vomited after drinking beer and shots, was too drunk to consent to sex but Christie insisted that ‘we both knew what we were doing’.

However the 29-year-old, the commanding officer of Edinburgh-based HMS Archer, admitted to military police he had ‘abused his power’ in sleeping with the cadet.

It has been heard Christie ‘pounced’ on the drunk cadet – who was sick after drinking spirits he bought her – and ‘exploited’ her in a hotel room after two Navy nights out.

Prosecutor William Peters said he ‘abused his authority’ and Christie was said to have told her afterwards ‘you were asking for it’.

Christie is accused of abusing the woman – who cannot be named for legal reasons – in Eyemouth, Berwickshire, and later in Ramsgate, Kent. He denies five counts of rape. Yesterday at Bulford Military Court, Wiltshire, Christie gave his account of what happened.

Referring to the first incident in Eyemouth, he said: ‘We were sat next to each other.

‘It wasn’t so much playing footsies, it was more her calf rubbing against my calf.

‘I bought drinks for everyone and I also bought an additional shot of Sourz for everyone.

‘I probably shouldn’t have been buying my subordinates, let alone the students, shots. It came out the blue her being sick. She got on to her feet, took herself to the bathroom. She wasn’t stumbling or falling over, she was a bit shaken.’

He said she was ‘drunk’ but ‘wasn’t unsteady, she wasn’t slurring her words’.

He claimed she tried to kiss him in the pub toilet after he brought her a glass of water, to which he said, ‘No, not here’. Outside the pub he asked her, ‘Are we going back to the hotel’, to which he claims she gave a ‘wry smile’.

Christie said they had ‘no difficulty’ getting back to his hotel room and that although she did not explicitly give consent to sex he had ‘no concerns about her willingness’ because she ‘gave me the eye’. Referring to the second incident in Ramsgate, Christie told police the teenager was ‘fairly sober’.

He said: ‘She was willing, pulling me in to her when we were kissing, it was mutual.’

The court heard from a cadet who was walking the alleged victim back to the ship after the night out in Ramsgate.

Andrew Miles told the court the teenager was so drunk she spilled drinks over a training officer. He was told by the officer to take her back to the ship, but when they got outside Christie was there.

Christie told him to ‘f*** off’ before chasing the cadet away.

The following morning, it became known on the ship that both Christie and his alleged victim had spent the night in a hotel and they were both removed from the ship.

Christie told the court both evenings were ‘consensual’.

The hearing continues.

‘Knew what we were doing’