Royal Navy sailor locked up for drunken sexual assaults on female colleagues
A Royal Navy sailor has been locked up after he chased a female colleague upstairs and smacked her bottom before sexually assaulting another in her bedroom.
Able Rate Ben Lynch slapped the female sailor’s rear four times while running after her at an airbase.
The 33-year-old also grabbed another female sailor’s breasts at a Navy bar and “smirked” after molesting a third female colleague.
After being convicted of two sexual assaults and one count of disgraceful conduct, Lynch was detained for two years. He was also dismissed from the Navy.
Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire heard the incidents happened at RNAS Culdrose, a Royal Navy airbase in Cornwall also known as HMS Seahawk.
‘Loud and inappropriate’
Lynch was described as being “loud” and “inappropriate” when drinking and was described by one victim as a “joker”.
The court heard a female colleague reported Lynch after he sexually assaulted her, and two other female sailors made complaints that he had acted inappropriately towards them.
One of his female colleagues said she was sexually assaulted at a bar.
She said: “He came up behind me and grabbed me from behind on my breasts, both of them. It was sore.”
Col Jim Carmichael, prosecuting, said that in another incident, Lynch chased a sailor up the stairs, smacking her bottom four times and only stopped when she reached her room.
Lynch sexually assaulted a third colleague, who said he banged on her door late at night after they had been drinking and she initially told him to leave but eventually let him in.
‘I felt very vulnerable’
In her police interview, the sailor said she started talking about a man that she was seeing in an attempt to encourage Lynch to leave.
She said he became “really sexual” and she recalled feeling “very vulnerable and very uncomfortable”.
The sailor broke down in tears as she told the panel: “I’ve tried to get rid of it [from my mind], to be honest.”
In her victim statement, she said: “I am still very emotional and depressed.
“Before the incident, I was very independent and didn’t need anyone around me like I do now.
“I cry most nights to myself and I always have to check the door is locked. I now have trouble sleeping… I am unsure whether I feel safe in the Royal Navy.”
‘Very serious, severe mistakes’
In mitigation, Lt Cmdr Joshua Gorst said Lynch now accepted these were “very serious” offences and had cut down his alcohol consumption to “effectively zero” as a result.
“It is clear that he struggles to express himself appropriately in social environments,” he said.
“A coping mechanism of drinking too much alcohol at this time in his life.
“These offences were very serious, severe mistakes.”
Lynch had also been accused of lifting up his colleague’s top while she was on FaceTime with her aunt. However, he was cleared of disgraceful conduct in relation to the alleged incident.
Assistant Judge Advocate Gen Jane England sentenced Lynch to two years in military detention.
After being dismissed from the Navy, he was ordered to pay a £3,300 service compensation order and added to the sex offenders register.
