Major General drunkenly touched and kissed woman, court martial hears

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A senior Army officer leading an overseas military delegation drunkenly touched and tried to kiss a woman in a karaoke bar, a court martial heard.

Major General James Roddis had been drinking for several hours when he started touching the hair of the woman before kissing her on the lips.

A court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire, heard the delegation were on the last night of their overseas trip in April this year.

The court was told Roddis had been required to resign from the Army in July following a misconduct investigation.

The married father of three previously admitted a charge of disgraceful conduct of an indecent kind and returned to court for sentencing.

Graham Coombes, prosecuting, said that while off duty the delegation had taken part in a local tradition of two hours’ unlimited drinking, before moving on to a restaurant and finally a karaoke bar where they downed glasses of champagne.

“The complainant accepts she was drunk, and it became apparent the accused was also drunk,” Mr Coombes said.

Shortly after midnight, a member of the party was filming the filling of a champagne fountain and in the background Roddis can be seen touching the complainant’s hair and she indicates with her finger for him to stop.

The court heard the kiss was not captured on film but the lead up to it was.

“He begins to touch and inappropriately touch and play with her hair and touch her ponytail before putting his arm around her,” Mr Coombes said.

“She turns to the accused and asks him to stop. She turns towards him and raises her finger appealing to him to stop. She says she didn’t know what else to do to stop him touching her hair.

“The accused continues to touch her and pulls the bobble out causing her hair to roll down and he says to her that ‘her hair looks better down’.

“You can see her raise her eyes and indicate her displeasure.”

A few minutes later, Roddis puts his hands on her chin and kisses her on the lips for around two seconds.

“She says this was completely uninvited and without warning,” Mr Coombes said.

Mr Coombes told the court the woman later messaged her husband, telling him: “Just because you are a two-star general you don’t get to touch me.”

The following day, the woman asked to speak to Roddis in private on the flight home and told him his behaviour the previous evening was unacceptable.

“The accused apologised and replied, ‘I need to resign’,” Mr Coombes said.

“The accused asked her if she intended to make a formal complaint and if she did to tell him because he would need to resign.”

The court heard this was the second similar incident involving Roddis’s conduct for which he received a punishment of loss of seniority.

Two female civil servants had lodged complaints about his conduct following an incident, again overseas, in 2023 where he had asked “questions of a sexual nature” and “touched one of the females that made her feel uncomfortable”.

In a victim impact statement, the complainant said she “did the right thing” in reporting Roddis.

“My main concern is how powerless I was that night. It has left me feeling vulnerable,” she added.

The court heard Roddis had a distinguished military career lasting 29 years and had been made an MBE and awarded several medals.

Jane Bickerstaff KC, defending, said Roddis had recently been diagnosed with alcohol dependency.

“He has been through a formal disciplinary process and his commission has been revoked,” she said.

“He is not allowed to refer to himself as having been a major general in the Army.

“This conduct taking place over a few minutes has resulted in the loss of a career that he spent 30 years building – a distinguished career in which he has received a number of citations.

“You will appreciate that he has lost not only his career but the future potential prospects of that career.

“When one appreciates, as James Roddis does, that one only has one’s self to blame, it is a bitter pill to swallow.”

Miss Bickerstaff said other people present in the bar heard Roddis apologise immediately to the woman after kissing her and said he was sorry for “misreading the situation”.

“He was unaware she wanted him to stop and there was no request until the point of the kiss and when he tried to kiss her and got nothing back he immediately realised it was not wanted and he apologised,” she said.

“He has never suggested she was consenting and as soon as she realised she wasn’t, he stopped.”

The complainant cannot be identified due to a court order.

Roddis’s sentence is being decided by a court martial board comprising of three senior officers sitting with Judge Advocate General Alan Large.

The president of the board was an Royal Air Force air marshal and they were sitting with an Army major general and a Royal Navy commodore.