A Major in the British Army accused of raping a female Captain after a Burns night supper told investigators he was too drunk to remember having sex and so she must have assaulted him, a court martial heard today.
Major Gregor Beaton claimed he was the actual victim after he was arrested on suspicion of rape and quizzed by Royal Military Police.
The Afghanistan veteran, who served in Helmand Province, told officers he was so drunk he could not recall what had happened, adding: ‘I did not want sexual contact. I did not initiate it.’
When told that his DNA had been found inside the woman, he insisted that meant he must have been forced into sex and should make a complaint himself.
Major Gregor Beaton (pictured outside Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire) claimed he was the actual victim after he was arrested on suspicion of rape and quizzed by Royal Military Police, Bulford Military Court heard today
He told the court: ‘She has assaulted me. That’s my understanding. I did not have sex with her.’
The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, previously told the court she was horrified when she woke up naked in her bed the morning after the drunken Burns supper next to Beaton with ‘absolutely no memory’ of what had happened.
She had been ‘flirting’ with another soldier during the evening and at first thought it was him but when she saw it was Beaton, who she barely knew, she panicked.
The court heard that when she confronted Beaton, a Sandhurst graduate of the 14th Regiment, Royal Artillery, he said he was ’99 per cent sure’ nothing had happened.
Giving evidence at Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire today Beaton said ‘he didn’t have anything to hide’ and had simply chatted to the woman, who had wandered into his room after previously being put to bed by a friend because she was so drunk.
He told the court he then took her back to her own dorm and they spoke for a while about the soldier she had been ‘flirting’ with, before he fell asleep in an armchair.
He said he woke when the woman went into the bathroom, then sat on the end of her bed and wrapped himself in a blanket but accidentally fell asleep.
He told the court that the next day she quizzed him over what had happened during the night, saying: ‘She kept asking and said ‘are you positive?’
‘I said I am 99 per cent sure we did not have sex.’
Defending, Fern Russell asked him why he used that specific language.
Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire was previously told the woman was horrified when she woke up in her bed next to Beaton with ‘absolutely no memory’ of what had happened
He replied: ‘From long experience I know there are no absolutes in this world.
‘For years, even before I went to [the base where the incident occurred] whenever people ask me ‘are you sure?’ I have always said ‘I am 99 per cent sure’.
When the woman asked him again if he was sure they had not had sex, Beaton offered to go into town with her to get her the morning after pill.
He explained that he had a daughter, who is now aged eight, through an unplanned pregnancy and he wanted to help the woman if she might be pregnant.
He said: ‘I offered help because perhaps she would be less embarrassed to go with someone she didn’t know.’
He said that at that stage he assumed that if she had had sex with anyone, it would have been with the other soldier she was attracted to.
The woman declined and later that day went for a medical examination where it was revealed she had Beaton’s DNA inside her.
Beaton was arrested in the early hours of the next morning and continued to deny anything had taken place between the pair.
He told the court: ‘I had nothing to hide, I had no reason to. I knew there hadn’t [been a rape].’
During the police investigation his army lawyer advised him to give a ‘no comment’ interview but Beaton insisted he had nothing to hide.
In his initial interview, he said: ‘I do not remember having sex with her. You do not have sex with people who are that drunk.’
He told the court today: ‘[I thought] the truth will out. I was not trying to cover my tracks and be dishonest. It is not who I am.
‘I couldn’t dispute the scientific and forensic evidence, it was beyond contestation. I just became an absolute wreck as soon as I was told sexual activity had taken place.’
After being told that a medical examination had found his DNA inside the woman, Beaton insisted it would not have been him who ‘initiated’ the contact and then claimed he must have been assaulted.
The court heard that during the Burns night celebrations he had two highballs of beer, a few glasses of white wine and a small glass of port.
As the evening went on he also drank Jäger and at least five measures of whiskey.
Beaton denies one charge of rape.
The trial in Bulford, Wiltshire, continues.