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.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.
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.