Royal Navy sailor sexually assaulted by married colleague, court martial told

Leading Air Engineering Technician (LAT) Gavin Morrison, 40, is accused of taking the alleged victim for a short drive in his new car before he parked in a car park, where he is said to have assaulted her.

Morrison, who is a married father, is on trial at Portsmouth Naval Base’s court martial centre accused of the sexual assault at HMS Heron at Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) Yeovilton in Somerset on July 14, 2014.

The victim described how she had been scrubbing a picnic table clean at the base when Morrison approached her and said: ‘You would make a good scrubber’, which she said she ‘took as banter’.

But he returned later and asked her to go for a drive in his new car, which she initially refused, and then agreed to.

She described how he drove to a car park on the base, where he took hold of her hand and rubbed it against his groin, over his clothes, three times.

She said: ‘He started rubbing himself, he let go. He pointed to his wedding ring and said “Are you married?”.

‘He started apologising and then said “Do you want me to stop?” and I said “Yes”.

‘He took hold of my wrist again and he started rubbing himself against it.’

She said that he then hoisted himself up from his seat and, indicating his groin area, said: ‘Take a look at this.’

She said that she ‘started to cut the feelings off from my body’ and ‘I started counting the windows on Yeovil block to take my mind off it’.

She explained that she felt unable to leave the car because she was afraid, and also was worried she would get into trouble because she was wearing a T-shirt rather than a shirt, which she had taken off while cleaning the table.

She said he then unzipped her trousers before giving her a kiss.

She said: ‘He kept leaning towards me and I leant back. He kissed me. I said I must taste like an ash tray. He said I did. He kissed me again. I said I needed to go for a shower.

‘The vehicle started and we came out of the car park.

‘He kept trying to apologise. He said he wouldn’t do it if his wife wasn’t away.’

Morrison, who is based at HMS Heron, denies the offence and the court martial trial continues.