Royal Navy engineer ‘sniggered while groping sailor after boozy barbecue’

Daniel Goffey, 25, denied three counts of sexual assault on Monday (Picture: Solent News /PA)

A Royal Navy engineer groped a sailor’s bottom as she climbed a ladder after sexually assaulting another colleague, a court martial heard.

The alleged incidents happened on board the £3.1billion HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier after an ‘alcohol-fuelled’ barbecue.

Able Seaman Daniel Goffey, 25, denied three counts of sexual assault at Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire, on Monday.

The court heard Goffey approached the first woman while she was stood with a group of sailors.

Captain Rebecca Slee, prosecuting, said he ‘put one arm around her waist and one on her bottom and tried to pull her towards him’.

The alleged victim said he was ‘intoxicated, slurring his words, put his arms around me and was not letting me go anywhere’. 

She added: ‘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.’

Goffey allegedly groped two sailors (Picture: Solent News)

The alleged incidents happened aboard the £3.1billion HMS Prince of Wales (Picture: PA)

She managed to push Goffey away but he then went into her mess room – a room where sailors eat and socialise.

As she was watching TV later on, he started pecking her ‘all over’ her face even though she tried to put her hands up to stop him, the court heard.

After this incident, Goffey allegedly approached his next victim.

She told the court: ‘He put his right hand on my waist and then, with his left hand, touched my right butt-cheek. I felt very uncomfortable and moved away.’

A group of sailors tried to get Goffey away from the mess room and as they went up the ladder one-by-one, he allegedly assaulted the sailor by grabbing her bottom.   

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.’

Goffey’s defence team argued he could not have balanced on the ladder and touched the second sailor’s bottom with both hands due to his intoxicated state.

The Court Martial continues.

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