by Democrat reporter
A Royal Navy petty officer accused of raping a female colleague at Faslane is also alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman on board a submarine.
The woman – a crew member on the Royal Navy’s nuclear-powered attack submarine HMS Astute – claimed petty officer Jake Wilson attacked her as she was leaning over a desk in the vessel’s control room.
In the run-up to the reported incident, she claimed Wilson had repeatedly touched her on the shoulder, stroked her knee, and put his arms around her from behind and rested his hands on her hips.
She told a jury at the High Court: “It had that sort of sexual note to it. It was more than friendly, it was more creepy.”
She said she was also concerned by the language that accompanied the alleged unwanted touching.
She told the trial: “Most people wouldn’t tell me they were, like, attracted, sort of thing. He would say: ‘You look nice’ or ‘Your hair looks nice’. It was just little things.
“He was like: ‘You could be the mother to my children’.”
She said the alleged control room incident happened when she returned from leave just before the boat sailed.
She said: “I had to sign back in for the keys. Next thing you know, I was just kind of leaning on a desk, and I felt something.
“I was slapped on the right bum cheek very hard. I turned round and said to Jake: ‘Don’t you ever touch me again!’ and then I stormed out.
“I was crying hysterically. I think it was more than I didn’t expect that from him. I was just panicking about what I’d do next.”
As she fled the control room, she said she met her warrant officer who was coming up the stairs.
She continued: “I just wanted to get off the boat, so I just ran past him. He was like, ‘Are you OK?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I’m fine. Nothing to worry about.
She said she went down to her bunk space to grab her laptop, only for the accused to turn up at the door to her bunk.
She said: “He was at the end of the curtain. He said, ‘I’m so sorry, babe.
“I was like ‘Don’t worry about it’. I just wanted to get him out of my room.
“He was like, ‘Chill out. Calm down. Just forget about it’. I was like, ‘Just go! Just forget about it!
She said she headed in a different direction to get away from him, but admitted she had not reported the incident to senior officers at the time.
Wilson, 38, from Gosport, Hampshire, denies attacking the woman on various occasions between October 2021 and November 2022, including striking her on the buttocks and hugging her on one occasion.
At the time of his alleged assaults, the sub on which they were both serving was docked at HM Naval Base Clyde.
He has lodged special defences stating that both women had consented to all sexual contact with him.
The trial, before temporary judge John Morris KC, continues.