A trainee British Army officer at Sandhurst military academy raped a female colleague who was so drunk ‘she could not walk’, a court martial has heard.
Officer Cadet Harry Waters, 24, is accused of carrying the young woman upstairs ‘princess style’ and having sex with her on his bed at his family home.
The officers-in-training had shared a ‘passionate’ kiss downstairs on the sofa, the military court was told.
OCdt Waters, who denies rape, claims his fellow cadet climbed on top of him prompting him to ask: ‘Do you want it?’.
But the female trainee officer later told him ‘if you have to carry me up the stairs’ that doesn’t count as consent for sex.
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, whose alumni include Princes William and Harry, is responsible for training the British Army’s officers but in recent years the Berkshire institution has been rocked by sex abuse scandals.
Pictured: Officer Cadet Harry Waters, 24, outside Bulford Military Court Centre
Bulford Military Court, Wiltshire, heard Waters invited a group of cadets to his family’s home in Guildford, Surrey, for a weekend while his parents were away.
The alleged rape came after a day of heavy drinking, which the alleged victim, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was not accustomed to, it was heard.
Rupert Gregory, prosecuting, said: ‘OCdt Waters invited her and others to spend the weekend at his family home which is not far from Sandhurst.
‘On the Friday they had drinks and food and had watched a movie. She says she fell asleep and this defendant carried her up to her room.
‘The following day they went to a pub in London, drinking in the day. They met up with others.
‘It got quite late and they ended up taking an Uber back to his family home, they sat down and they carried on drinking.’
Mr Gregory said the female officer cadet was ‘not used to the robust drinking culture’ within the Army, had been drinking whisky, and was more inebriated than anyone else.
The prosecutor said others went to bed, leaving OCdt Waters and the alleged victim alone, and that the pair started kissing.
Officer Cadet Harry Waters is accused of carrying the young woman upstairs ‘princess style’ and having sex with her on his bed at his family home
‘She had quite a lot to drink’, Mr Gregory said. ‘He carried her upstairs again.
‘The next thing she recalls is that she has a flash of memory in his bed. He was on top of her having sex with her.
‘She was not sure if he had a condom on.
‘She was disoriented and froze. It was, she says, like a dream and she doesn’t know if it happened or not.’
In a police interview, the female cadet said: ‘It starts to get a bit fuzzy.. I was disoriented, I had flashes.
‘I was sitting and talking to Waters, I remember I kissed him.
‘Then the next memory I remember was being carried upstairs, I didn’t think much of it, I didn’t think it was weird because he carried me up [the night before].’
The officer cadet said she was carried ‘princess style’.
A stock image of Bulford Military Court Centre
She continued: ‘The next flash of memory was in his bed with him on top me. I think I still had my shirt on but didn’t have my bottoms on.’
At this point, the female officer alleged OCdt Walters was having sex with her.
‘I was not sure if this was a dream, it was like a flash and all of a sudden this was happening,’ she went on.
‘The next morning I was in his bed and he was not there.’
She said she realised they did have sex as she ‘ached’.
‘I didn’t say anything about it, I was just confused at this point’, she said.
In a police interview, OCdt Waters claimed she ‘climbed’ on him on the sofa and he asked her: ‘Do you want it? I don’t have a condom.’
He also told police that in the bedroom she told him he was ‘good’ at a sex act performed on her, but said he was ’embarrassed’ because he finished ‘very quickly’.
The court heard the morning after the incident, downstairs at the house, OCdt Waters was ‘regretful’. He told a male cadet who was staying there: ‘I know, I’m stupid.’
The group had a barbecue that day and the following day had a sexual assault briefing at Sandhurst.
The female cadet said she had a ‘visceral response’ to the briefing and squeezed her chair hard while fighting back tears.
Later that day at Sandhurst, OCdt Waters asked her how she was and claimed he didn’t remember what happened.
She suggested things were OK but thereafter tried to avoid him around Sandhurst.
She confided in a friend who urged her to make a report however it was heard she did not make a formal report initially.
She said she felt ‘isolated’ at Sandhurst and was not ‘supported’ there as she struggled to get an STI test when false rumours floated around that OCdt Waters had contracted one.
It was heard she was left upset when OCdt Waters moved into a room opposite hers.
While out with other cadets, the young woman was jokingly teased about ‘getting with’ OCdt Waters.
Around four months later, after speaking with the Padre at Sandhurst, the cadet wrote a letter to OCdt Waters accusing him of sexually assaulting her.
Mr Gregory said: ‘She ended up asking OCdt Waters whether he had an STI and wrote to him a letter about how isolated she felt.
‘They had a chat and he said he felt differently about what happened.
‘She said to him she was so drunk she could not walk so she didn’t consider that what they did in the bed was consensual.
‘He said he had not carried her upstairs and that she said ‘yes’.’
The cadet said of the meeting: ‘I told him you need to know this but I’m not able to say this, I handed him the note and walked back to my room.’
The note said that she had been struggling to deal with the ‘psychological’ impact of what happened, that she was ‘isolated’, and that it would ‘stick with me’.
OCdt Waters came to her room and she told him: ‘I don’t know if you have a different definition of consent but if you could not walk up the stairs I don’t see that as consent.’
OCdt Waters left her room upset after telling her he didn’t carry her upstairs.
The trial, due to last over two weeks, continues.