A highly-decorated Major General who was a pallbearer at Prince Philip’s funeral has been kicked out of the army for trying to kiss a female colleague at a drunken karaoke night.
James Roddis, a married father-of-three, was tipped as the future head of the British Army before he ‘inappropriately’ played with the hair of the female RAF officer then gave her a ‘completely uninvited’ kiss on the lips.
The 53-year-old, from Aberdour, Fife, was formally dismissed from the armed forces by a court martial board yesterday after admitting disgraceful conduct of an indecent kind during a deployment to Japan.
He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, ordered to complete 30 days of rehabilitation and 150 hours unpaid work and pay his victim £2,500 compensation.
James Roddis ‘inappropriately’ played with the hair of the female RAF officer before giving her an ‘uninvited’ kiss
Judge Advocate General Alan Large told him: ‘The kiss and touching of the victim was clearly an indecent act and your conduct was persistent, to a degree.
‘This was an escalating course of indecent conduct and when you grabbed her face and kissed her you intended to do just that.’
The hearing in Bulford, Wiltshire, marked the official end of Roddis’s glittering 29-year army career.
Roddis had received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), the UK’s highest award for leadership in combat, two Queen’s commendations and a Mention in Dispatches after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In 2014, he was commanding officer of The Highlanders – troops from the 4th Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland – who were then the last Scottish battalion to serve in a combat role in Afghanistan.
But his career ended in disgrace when he became only the second officer of his rank to face a court martial since 1815.
Yesterday’s hearing was told that Roddis and his victim were part of a six-strong group who went out when they were off duty on the last night of the trip to Japan.
They went to a BBQ restaurant and participated in a two-hour Japanese tradition known as Nomihodai, which means ‘all you can drink’, before continuing the revelry at a karaoke bar.
Videos from the night showed the service personnel drinking from a champagne tower and Roddis singing a drunken duet of The Killers’ hit Mr Brightside with a colleague.
Prosecutor Graham Coombes said a ‘substantial quantity of alcohol was consumed’.
He said: ‘By the time the group headed to the karaoke bar, the complainant accepted that she was drunk and it became apparent that the accused was drunk.’
Roddis turned his attention to his victim – who cannot be named for legal reasons – while they sat in a booth at the bar and he began tugging at her ponytail.
The female RAF officer said she became ‘very aware of the rank difference’ and tried to tell the ex-Maj Gen to stop.
Roddis, who was a pallbearer at Prince Philip’s funeral, had been tipped as the future head of the British Army
Part of the incident was caught on film, and Mr Coombes said: ‘He begins to touch and inappropriately touch and play with her hair and touch her ponytail before putting his arm around her.
‘She turns to the accused and asks him to stop. She turns towards him and raises her finger appealing to him to stop. She says she didn’t know what else to do to stop him touching her hair.
‘The accused continues to touch her and pulls the bobble out causing her hair to roll down and he says to her that “her hair looks better down”.
‘You can see her raise her eyes and indicate her displeasure.’
Roddis then grasped her chin and kissed her, which was not filmed but which Mr Coombes said was ‘completely uninvited and without warning’.
He added: ‘Shortly afterwards, as a result of what the accused had done, she left the bar with another member of the group.
‘She says she felt really angry and was upset about what had happened.’
The court martial heard she texted her husband saying: ‘Just because you’re a two-star general, it doesn’t mean you get to touch me.’
On the flight home the next day, the female officer told Roddis that ‘there was some things that you did last night that I deem unacceptable’.
He told her: ‘I need to resign.’
Summarising the aggravating factors of the case, the prosecutor said: ‘The victim was carrying out her duties.
‘She attended the social event as part of her duties and was expected to attend the final night.
‘The defendant was in a position of responsibility and trust. The offences took place in public.’
Roddis had originally been accused of sexual assault following the incident in April but admitted a lesser charge at a hearing in July.
He was required to resign from the army in May.
The court martial heard it was the second similar incident involving Roddis’s conduct for which he received a punishment of loss of seniority.
Two female civil servants had lodged complaints about his conduct following an incident, again overseas, in 2023 where he had asked ‘questions of a sexual nature’ and ‘touched one of the females that made her feel uncomfortable’.
In a victim impact statement, the complainant said she ‘did the right thing’ in reporting Roddis.
‘My main concern is how powerless I was that night. It has left me feeling vulnerable,’ she added.
Jane Bickerstaff KC, defending, said Roddis had recently been diagnosed with alcohol dependency.
‘He has been through a formal disciplinary process and his commission has been revoked,” she said.
‘He is not allowed to refer to himself as having been a major general in the Army.
‘This conduct taking place over a few minutes has resulted in the loss of a career that he spent 30 years building – a distinguished career in which he has received a number of citations.
‘You will appreciate that he has lost not only his career but the future potential prospects of that career.
‘When one appreciates, as James Roddis does, that one only has one’s self to blame, it is a bitter pill to swallow.’
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