England

Sailor guilty of sex charges

A sailor had sex with a colleague on board a Royal Navy frigate after waking up another female rating and touching her breast in the hope that she would invite him into her bed, a court martial heard today.

Able Seaman Greig Gammack was sentenced to a 90-day service supervision and punishment order at Portsmouth Naval Base court martial centre having pleaded guilty to three charges of contravening standing orders.

These were that he had sexual intercourse with one woman, intimate physical contact with another and had entered a female mess uninvited.

The sentence requires Gammack, 21, from Aberdeen, to carry out extra duties and causes him to lose some pay and leave rights.

The court heard that Gammack had been drinking while HMS Chatham, a type 22 frigate, was alongside at Chatham, on November 10, 2010.

The now-decommissioned warship was visiting the Kent dockyard to mark the 20th anniversary of its acceptance into the fleet.

In the early hours Gammack, who now serves on board helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious, went down into the female ratings' mess on the pretence of returning someone's mobile phone.

He then went into the sleeping quarters, where he awoke one rating, who was 17 at the time, and put his hand briefly on her breast.

Commander Darren Reed, prosecuting, said: "The hand is applied, she tells him: 'What are you doing?', he removes the hand and says 'Sorry, I shouldn't have done that'."

The court heard that Gammack, who joined the navy at 16, then went on to wake up another female rating who accepted his advances and did have sex with him.

Judge Alastair McGrigor said: "You had too much to drink and with the excuse of returning a mobile phone you entered the female mess.

"You were seeking a sexual encounter and you deliberately breached standing orders."

He added: "This was a gross breach of discipline. Sailors have little privacy and must feel safe in their bunks."

Prior to the incident, HMS Chatham had recently returned from a seven-month deployment off the coast of Somalia where she was lead vessel for Operation Ocean Shield, the Nato action to counter piracy, and Gammack had received a UN medal for his service.