ROYAL MARINES CAPTAIN 'RAPED WOMAN AT BASE' AS SHE TOLD HIM 'NO NO STOP'
A Royal Marines captain raped a woman at a military base despite her telling him: "No, no, stop," a court has heard.Ricky Shepherd, 47, is on trial at Bournemouth Crown Court facing charges of rape, attempted rape, assault by penetration and sexual assault relating to an incident in the early hours of November 24, 2023.
Richard Onslow, prosecuting, told the court that Shepherd met the complainant when she had been "socialising" at an officers' mess bar at a military base in Dorset.
He continued: "She decided to sleep on a sofa in the mess and she told Shepherd that before he left the bar." Mr Onslow said Shepherd sent the complainant a WhatsApp message "wishing her goodnight" and that she replied saying she was about to go home.
He said: "He invited her to stay with him although he realised that was a bit of a forward suggestion and soon after that he messaged her again: 'We fancy each other, right?' And she replied: 'Yes but I just want to sleep.'" Mr Onslow said Shepherd sent another message saying: "You can sleep in my bed," and the complainant replied: "That will do but I really just want to sleep." The prosecutor said the defendant gave the complainant directions on how to reach the room where he was staying and added: "When she got to his room, he came to the door wearing his shirt and trousers, offered her a beer, she refused it.
She told him nothing was going to happen, she removed her clothes, including her pants.
"She lay at the edge of the bed and she felt him grinding himself against her.
She said she had an early start and said: 'Thank you but no.'" Mr Onslow said that as the pair were lying in the bed, Shepherd "grabbed her chest" and made repeated attempts to have sex with her.
He told the court that the complainant said Shepherd was "completely and utterly focused" on having sex with her.
"She froze because she didn’t know what to do, she didn’t know who was around, what their reaction would be." He continued: "It was like he wasn’t listening although she was saying 'No look I do not want to.'" The prosecutor said that the defendant asked for oral sex and she told him that "if he tried to put his c*ck in her mouth she would bite it off".
Mr Onslow said that after a while, the pair fell asleep before the defendant tried again in the early morning to have sex with her while holding her down.
He said: "The more she said: 'No' and tried to wriggle away, the more turned on he was.
She decided to get it over with, which the Crown says is not true consent.
She said: 'Stop,' but he continued." The prosecutor said that in the morning, the defendant was "chatty" as he drove the complainant to her car.
"This is a case where the defendant simply ignored a woman saying: 'No, no, stop it,' he just carried on regardless." He added the defendant told police that the sex was consensual and suggested she had accused him because "possibly, she was embarrassed she had sex with him, might have been seen by somebody coming out of his room, might be the walk of shame".
The prosecutor said the complainant told two people about the incident on the following day before attending a sexual assault referral centre where photographs were taken of bruising to her chest, legs, and arms.
She made a formal police complaint in January 2024.
The defendant, who was based at Hamworthy, Poole, denies the charges and the trial continues.
