'˜Sex addict Royal Navy officer raped woman as she slept', court told

Callum Fennell, 25, from Portsmouth, later texted his mother to say the woman was ‘asleep and drunk’, a court was told.

The Plymouth Herald reported that the complainant told the jury she was ‘shocked and shaking’ after the rape.

She told police during a recorded police interview watched by the jury: ‘I was mortified. I was pretty much crying myself asleep.’

The woman went to police the next day to complain of rape.

She also said that she had woken up eight days before to find Fennell had his hands down her pyjama trousers.

Fennell has gone on trial at Plymouth Crown Court after denying rape of the woman on April 1 last year.

He has also pleaded not guilty to a single count of sexual assault.

The woman told the court that she had woken at 4am to find Fennell having sex with her.

She said he had pulled her pyjama bottoms and underwear down.

She said Fennell stopped and went to the bathroom and she said nothing to him until the pair exchanged texts the next day.

The woman told Fennell: ‘At what point in your head did you think it was acceptable to do that to me while I was asleep?’

The court heard that Fennell replied: ‘It should never have happened. I feel like a monster, a disgusting monster.’

He had earlier messaged her: ‘I am so sorry for what I did that night. There is no excuse for it. If you want to hit or kill me, please do it.’

The woman said that Fennell had previously attended a group up to twice a week for sex addiction.

Peter Coombe, opening the case for the Crown Prosecution Service, said that a string of text messages from the defendant to the woman the next day showed Fennell admitted ‘wrongdoing’.

He told the jury that Fennell, from Cosham, had said in court documents that he had not believed he had done anything wrong but was trying to placate the woman.

But Mr Coombe said he was speaking in the same way to his own mother in messages.

He read a message from Fennell saying: ‘Mum, I had sex with (woman’s name) when I should not have.’

Mr Coombe said the mother replied: ‘She could have said no.’

He added Fennell said: ‘No, she was asleep and drunk. OK, I mucked up and I could lose everything if she went to the police.’

The trial continues.