Navy lieutenant found GUILTY of groping female colleague’s breasts on trident nuclear sub as they showed around sea cadets

A Royal Navy lieutenant was today convicted of sexually assaulting a female colleague by groping her breast while giving sea cadets a tour of a nuclear submarine.

Lieutenant Basil Purdue, 26, sexually abused the female sailor while she was helping him chaperone the youngsters around HMS Vanguard.

Shortly after abusing the victim, while they were walking the sea cadets back to a coach, Purdue told the shocked woman "I'm going to f*** you later."

Purdue was convicted of sexual assault after a two-day trial at Portsmouth Military Court, Hampshire.

As the verdict was read out by members of the board, Purdue stood emotionless but members of his family shouted "no!" and burst into tears.

Purdue had denied sexually assaulting the woman on HMS Vanguard in Helensburgh, Scotland, on February 21 of last year.

Purdue, currently based at HMS Excellent in Portsmouth, had met the woman just over a month before the incident at a Royal Navy social.

Captain Alison Towler, prosecuting, said: "On February 21 of last year Purdue sexually touched the victim without having her consent to do so."

Purdue and the woman took the cadets to a junior mess room on board the submarine, which is fitted with Trident ballistic missiles, while the exercise took place and stood by the door together, out of sight of the group.

She said she and Purdue were speaking about their plans for that evening and she told him she was going to spend the night watching films and eating pizza with friends.

The woman told the court: "We got to HMS Vanguard and were split into two groups to give tours, Purdue was hosting one and another colleague was hosting the other.

"I was originally in the other group but I swapped to the one Purdue was in because for some reason all the young girls were in that one, and I wanted to help the girls out.

"Then the SPOEX [ship protection exercise] took place so we went to the junior mess room on the submarine. They all followed me in.

"I then came out of the room to stand by the door and Purdue was on the other side of the door.

"We were outside in the passageway but by the door. We were standing a couple of feet apart, the door was open but there was a curtain next to it which was shut.

"We were having general chit chat about what we were doing that weekend, what our plans were when the visit finished. My plans were to meet two of my friends and have pizza and have a movie night.

"Purdue told me he was going to go to the bar and made derogatory comments about young students being at the bar and said they are normally drunk because they are students.

"He told me that they were easy.

"He wanted to come back to what we were doing and I told him 'you can't just invite yourself to someone's cabin, they're our plans that I made with my friends and you can't just invite yourself'.

"He said 'why not?' and I told him you just can't, and then that's when the incident took place.

"We were talking and a little bit close together and he groped my right breast.

"My initial reaction was 'what the f*** are you doing?' It was for about two seconds until he realised the look on my face."

The woman said a month earlier Purdue had made a complaint to his seniors about misconduct in the base, so she was shocked he sexually assaulted her.

She said: "Then I said to him 'are you joking? You're one of the worst people when it comes to making complaints.'

"He said [referring to his rank] 'I'm a two ringer it doesn't matter.' I went back into the room because I didn't know where to put myself.

"After we had to walk the sea cadets to the coach, while we were walking there I told Purdue I had been very stressed out by what he said and couldn't wait to finish the visit.

"He said to me 'I'm going to f*** you later', and I said: 'No you're not'.

"The sea cadets were just about two or three paces behind us and I told him it was really inappropriate.

"Then he said 'if there's grass on the wicket they are old enough to play cricket.' I was disgusted by it.

"Later that evening I met my friends as planned, I broke into tears and told them what happened."

Purdue told the court the female sailor made up the allegation and 'wanted to damage his career'.

The submariner said he had previously stuck up for her when other sailors shared suggestive pictures of her and said he embarrassed her by reporting it to senior officers.

A sentencing date is yet to be fixed, but judge advocate Robert Hill said it is likely to be next month.