Fareham Royal Navy officer found guilty of secretly filming himself having sex with 'attractive' officer and smirking to camera

Sub Lieutenant Scott Ewing told a court martial he used his phone to record the video as he was 'proving to the guys that something happened... I was fluffing my feathers'.

The 11 seconds clip showed SLt Ewing turning to smile at the camera and making an 'ok' sign with his fingers while he had sex with her as she faced away from him.

The female officer told the court she was horrified to learn he had 'massively breached my trust' by filming her without consent and posting it to the all male group on the social media app.

SLt Ewing, who was based at the prestigious Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC), commonly known as Dartmouth, claimed that during sex he told her 'the lads have got to see this' and she gave him the go ahead by replying 'do whatever you need'.

But his version of events was rejected by the board at Bulford Military Court, Wilts, and he was convicted of voyeurism.

SLt Ewing, now of HMS Collingwood in Fareham, had told the two day trial that when he first met the female officer he immediately found her attractive and 'took a fancy to her'.

The pair later exchanged 'flirtatious' messages and partially naked pictures on Facebook in the weeks leading up to the incident.

They then met at a bar near Dartmouth, in Devon, which is the naval academy of the United Kingdom and was attended by Prince Charles, Prince Philip and Prince William.

SLt Ewing told the court she had previously implied they would have sex the next time they met so it was 'pretty clear what she meant' when she asked him if they should go to his room.

On the walk there, he said he mentioned several times 'I can't believe this, the lads aren't going to believe this'.

During sex, he claimed he said 'the lads have got to see this' and the female officer turned to him and said 'do whatever you need'.

He said: ‘I took that to mean "show them”.. I got the impression that was consent.

‘I then turned the camera round to my face, pulled a facial expression, stuck my tongue out, smiling, then made a gesture with my hand like "sweet, ok”.

‘It was proving to the guys that something happened... I was fluffing my feathers, showing off. Looking back it seems silly and immature but in that moment I just wanted to prove a point.

‘I was trying to come across as a lad, look what I did, and I got that response from them. [They said] fair play, he did it, well done.

‘At the time it made me feel like a lad. It made me feel cool, made me feel like I did something that the others thought was admirable.’

He told the court his friends in the Snapchat group had previously made jokes about him being a 'catfish' - someone perceived to be better looking online than in person - and had said he had 'no chance' with the female officer because she was 'out of his league'.

Lieutenant Commander Peter Barker, prosecuting, said: ‘The reason you make that gesture with your hands instead of saying anything is because you didn't want her to know.

‘She was facing away with her head down, you are doing everything you can to make sure she doesn't know what's going on.

‘She says there was absolutely no consent. It was a spur of the moment, immature prank that went wrong.’

Asked how she would have reacted if there was any mention of the sex being recorded or shared, the female officer told the court: ‘I never saw him holding a phone. He never mentioned recording having sex.

‘I would have got myself out of there as quickly as possible. That would not have been acceptable. That was never part of the deal.

‘Had there been a suggestion I would like to have thought I would probably have got quite angry and got myself out of the situation.

‘[If there was mention of it being shared] Even more so I would have found that unacceptable.’

After they had sex, she said she got dressed and went to leave and at that point she saw him pick up his phone but didn't think it suspicious at the time.

She said: ‘I said to him, 'you aren't going to tell anybody about this, are you?' and he just laughed or smirked I think.

‘At the time, I had nothing to be shocked or appalled about.’

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When a friend called her about two and a half weeks later, telling her there was a video of her, the female officer said she spoke to one of the other men in the Snapchat group who had seen it.

She said: ‘He assured me that my face wasn't in it, which was a relief because I was worried about that.

‘I didn't want to speak with [SLt Ewing] because I didn't trust him. He had massively breached my trust.

‘When I found out, I was absolutely shocked.’

SLt Ewing will be sentenced at a later date.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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