The mother of a teenage armed forces recruit has revealed disturbing details about the marine recruiter who allegedly obsessively stalked and harassed her daughter at a military base in Texas.
Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Champagne, 36, wrote a creepy book detailing his ‘scandalous romantic relationship’ with a 17-year-old female at the Marine Corps recruiting station in Fort Worth, Texas, Military.com reported.
In his book Cosette’s Decision – Champagne openly admits to having a ‘burning white-hot relationship’ with young girl – whose real name is not being mentioned to protect her as a sexual assault victim.
‘Cosette’ – as Champagne referred to her in his memoir – needed parental permission to join the military because she was under 18.
After being ‘guilted’ into a relationship with the recruiter – the pair allegedly messaged on Snapchat, had unprotected sex, filmed sex tapes and spent ‘three or four’ nights together each week as she told her parents she was staying with a friend.
Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Champagne, 36, wrote a creepy book detailing his ‘scandalous romantic relationship’ with a 17-year-old female at the Marine Corps recruiting station in Fort Worth, Texas
‘Cosette’ – as Champagne referred to her in his memoir – needed parental permission to join the military because she was under 18
The girl’s mother said that Champagne, who had become a ‘terrifying and controlling’ presence in her life, showed up at their home twice in one hour.
Champagne left two bottles of whiskey and a bizarre note thanked the young recruit for inviting him over for Christmas eight months earlier.
The unsettling event prompted the young girl to finally open up to her family about the relationship that had been going on in secret for months
‘He’s calling me, he’s leaving messages, he’s going crazy, Mom – he’s going to kill me,’ are the disturbing words that Kathlyn’s daughter told her mother.
The young girl said guilted her a lot to do things that I didn’t want to do.
She would tell him ‘I don’t want to do anything gross, and he would just nag at me until I did.
‘I would tell him “I’m not in the mood, I don’t want to do this.” It was often that I would say, “OK, just get it over with if you have to, I just don’t want to do this.”‘
The 36-year-old recruiter was removed from his role for the alleged sexual relationship which he described in self-publicized book.
‘My memoir is a true story about a scandalous romantic relationship,’ the book’s description said. ‘Cosette was a much younger woman with an affinity for older men, but we connected through discussions of overcoming suicide, assault, and abuse.’
Champagne explained that he was recently divorced and facing financial instability – which led him to loneliness, depression and a suicide attempt.
In the unsettling book he objectified ‘Cosette’s’ body and called her a ‘gift’ from another recruiter.
Champagne self-published book because Kickstart campaign said agents and publishers wanted to ‘remove some of the controversial elements’.
He detailed how he was immediately attracted to ‘Cosette’ the first time he saw her – at the age of 17: ‘I could not take my eyes off her,’ the book said.
‘Before she left that day, I challenged her to write down her Snapchat, even though I already had her cellphone programmed into my cellphone,’ Champagne wrote. ‘I had exercised plenty of risky behavior over my career.’
In his book Cosette’s Decision – Champagne openly admits to having a ‘burning white-hot relationship’ with young girl – whose real name is not being mentioned to protect her as a sexual assault victim
After the Marine Corps recruit was ‘guilted’ into a relationship with the Texas recruiter – the pair allegedly messaged on Snapchat , had unprotected sex, filmed sex tapes and spent ‘three or four’ nights together each week as she told her parents she was staying with a friend
The recruiter said was willing to risk his career to save and protect ‘Cosette’ and their relationship.
He claimed that the pair ‘dealt with lies, betrayal, and loss while reality kept pulling us apart’.
The young girl said that the inappropriate relationship involved instances of sexual assault – which he mother found out about a few months later.
In a response to the initial reporting of Champagne’s misconduct – Capt. Bryanna Kessler, a spokesperson the 8th Marine Corps District in which Champagne’s served, said that the teenage former recruit was ‘not in any danger of being contacted by Champagne.’
Her family claimed that this was untrue. They said Champagne reached out to the young girl under a fake name and threatened to release their alleged sex tapes.
‘I recorded us having sex multiple times and I’ll send the videos to everyone,’ one of the messages allegedly said.
He used the name Pete Mitchell, the main character of the movie Top Gun and an allusion he made in his memoir, to send the threats.
Please know that this case has become a top priority and we are diligently working on getting this wrapped up,’ an agent assigned to the case told the former recruit following Military.com’s initial report.
During the initial report, Kessler said that Champagne remained on active duty while the investigation took place but no longer performed recruiting functions.
Champagne’s ex-wife Kristi Champagne and her father, Rob Kersch allegedly raised concerns about the Marine noncommissioned officer to local police and military authorities -including sexual assault, emotional abuse and failure to provide child support.
However – allegedly only the emotional abuse case met the criteria to be taken seriously by officials.
‘At the very least, I hope what happened to me provides validity to her and her situation,’ Kristi said of her hopes for the former recruit – because she’s doubtful she will see the day ‘where he’s ever held accountable legally.’
Dailymail.com reached out to Champagne and the Marine Corps Recruiting Command Sexual Assault Response Coordinator for comment.
Christopher Champagne denied any claims of wrongdoing.