Royal Navy engineer 'sniggered' as he grabbed the bum of a fellow sailor after booze-fuelled deck party on HMS Prince of Wales, court martial hears

Able Seaman Daniel Goffey allegedly grabbed his crewmate's behind as he followed her on the £3.2 billion Portsmouth-based warship..

The 'very uncomfortable' female sailor had been trying to get rid of AB Goffey as moments before he squeezed her buttocks outside her mess area, the court martial heard.

AB Goffey, 25, is also accused of sexually assaulting another female sailor by groping her bottom and kissing her.

Bulford Military Court, in Wiltshire, heard all the alleged incidents happened following an alcohol-fuelled navy barbecue on board HMS Prince of Wales’s enormous four-acre flight deck.

Portsmouth-based engineering technician AB Goffey - who was 'intoxicated' - denies three counts of sexual assault.

Captain Rebecca Slee, prosecuting, said the first of AB Goffey's alleged victims was stood with a group of sailors when he 'put one arm around her waist and one on her bum and tried to pull her towards him'.

The alleged victim – who can’t be named for legal reasons – told the court: ‘AB Goffey was intoxicated, slurring his words, put his arms around me and was not letting me go anywhere.

‘He kept saying 'why are you not calm?'

‘I said “get off me, I don't know you”. I felt trapped, he wasn't letting me go anywhere.

‘I pushed him off and went into (another room).’

Later, the sailor was watching TV in her own mess room when AB Goffey arrived.

She said: ‘AB Goffey grabbed my face and he was pecking me all over my face for five to 10 seconds.

‘I put my hands up to stop him. I shrugged and told him to get off me.’

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The court heard soon after that incident AB Goffey targeted the other female sailor, his second alleged victim.

She told the court: ‘He put his right hand on my waist and then, with his left hand, touched my right butt-cheek,’ she told the court.

‘I felt very uncomfortable and moved away.’

The sailor and others tried to draw AB Goffey away from the mess by going to another area, which meant going up a ladder.

As the group went up the ladder one-by-one, AB Goffey allegedly sexually assaulted the sailor.

She said: ‘We all went up single-file.

‘I felt two hands on either side of my butt-cheeks for about two seconds.

‘I turned around to push him away and he just sniggered.

‘I slapped his hands away.’

The court heard that later on, in another mess, AB Goffey would not leave the victims alone and made them look 'very uncomfortable'.

Barrister Helen Easterbrook, defending AB Goffey, told the court he could not have balanced himself to touch the woman's bottom with both hands on the ladder because of his intoxicated state.

AB Goffey, now understood to be based at the HMS Nelson, in Portsmouth, denies three counts of sexual assault.

The court martial continues.