British Army soldier convicted of sexually assaulting colleague on night out
Lance Corporal Storm Elliott was found guilty of twice touching the soldier inappropriately during a night out clubbing
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A British Army soldier has been convicted of sexually assaulting a colleague after he groped her breast and slid his hand up her skirt during a night out.
Lance Corporal Storm Elliott, who was in training to be a Royal Military Police officer at the time, was found guilty of twice touching the young woman inappropriately while they were out clubbing. He had denied the charges.
Witnesses told the court the 22-year-old pestered the soldier on the dancefloor and continued to grope her after she told him not to kiss her.
He persisted even after she said no and pushed his hand away when he touched her breast.
LCpl Elliott claimed the touching was consensual but the board at Bulford Military Court, Wiltshire, decided the attention was unwanted and that he had grabbed the young woman’s crotch while the two were on the dancefloor.
The victim had told the trial she had been worried about reporting the incidents because “he was an RMP [Royal Military Police officer] and no one was going to believe it”.
Giving evidence, she told the court: “He put his arm around my shoulder, onto my left shoulder. From there I could feel him touching my breast in a way I didn’t want him to.
“It wasn’t very long because I stopped him from doing it. I was confused as to why he’d done it. We carried on dancing on the dance floor.
“I felt something under my dress on my underwear. It was as if someone was trying to move my underwear out of the way.
“I turned and saw his hand up my skirt. I felt a pressure on my underwear and I felt it on my vagina.
“I pushed his hand away. I walked straight to [my friend] and said I needed to leave.”
LCpl Elliott had become enamoured with the soldier after the two met at the Popworld nightclub in Portsmouth, Hampshire, where he was on a night out from his base at the nearby Defence School of Policing and Guarding.
She told the court: “He came up to me and said I looked gorgeous. He shouted in my ear because the music was loud.
“He seemed drunk but he wasn’t slurring. He stumbled towards me.”
LCpl Elliott shouted comments in her ear, asking if she wanted sex, and kept trying to kiss the young woman despite being told “no”, the court heard.
She said: “He was pushing his top half of his body towards me to kiss me. I couldn’t get back any further.
“I had my hand on his chest to try to push him off. He asked for a kiss and I said no. He just kept on trying.”
One of the woman’s friends, who accompanied her to the nightclub, told the court she had thought the defendant was “a little strange” because he introduced himself as “Lance Corporal Elliott”.
Audrey Archer, defending, said to her: “You’ve referred to him as a ‘lovesick puppy’ in your statement, is that right?”
The witness agreed, and said: “He was her shadow, following her around all night.”
The victim told the trial she had been scared to tell officers about the incident due to LCpl Elliott’s more senior position in the Army.
She said: “The way I saw it was that he was an RMP [Royal Military Police officer] and no one was going to believe it.”
LCpl Elliott will be sentenced next month.
Reporting by agencies