Sam Avery 38

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A Royal Navy sailor, who worked on HMS Prince of Wales, has been jailed for five years after raping a female colleague while she slept.

Leading Seaman Sam Avery was convicted at Bulford Military Court, in Wiltshire.

He has also been dismissed from Her Majesty's Services with disgrace.

The female sailor woke to find Avery having sex with her, his hands on her waist and her pants pulled down to her knees.

The woman, who cannot be named, had turned down two of his previous advances but agreed to let him stay the night in her bed before falling asleep.

She said the attack "came out of nowhere" as there was not even a friendly hug or kiss between the two.

The only sexual contact between them was the advances she had rejected earlier.

Avery, who worked refuelling stealth fighters on aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, denied a single charge of rape and claimed to have no memory of having sex with her. He said, if anything did happen, it must have been consensual.

Jailing him, Judge Robert Hill told Avery he had betrayed the trust of the woman who had agreed to let him sleep in her room.

Judge Hill said: "You and your victim had been contacting for some time on a social network. You had not met until the night of this offence. You were both out in Portsmouth, and you went back to [her address] with her.

"There came a time when both you and she went to bed. She took you on trust. There had been nothing sexual leading up to this.

"She firmly rebuffed you twice - there was no doubt she was not up for sex.

"She was drunk and asleep when you started to have sex with her. She trusted you and you knew you were being trusted."

During the trial, the panel heard the woman had gone to a pub in Portsmouth with friends before making her way back to her address.

Prosecutor William Peters said the pair knew of each other through social media but she did not know Averys name as he messaged her using a group account.

During the course of her evening at the pub, she had been exchanging messages with Avery, of 207 Squadron RAF Marham, Norfolk, which is a joint RAF and Navy unit for the F35 Lightning stealth fighter.

After bumping into him, she invited him back to her room for a drink and was happy to let him sleep in her bed.

Mr Peters said: "He made two efforts to touch her intimately but she rebuffed his advances and pushed him away.

"She then woke to find him on top of her with his penis inside her vagina, her pants had been pulled just below her knees, and his hand was around her waist."

In a police interview shown to the court, the woman said she was shocked by the alleged attack, saying: "He [touched] me on my waist area and I grabbed his hand and went no and then he stopped.

"And then about five minutes later he proceeded to do it again and I grabbed his hand and said no I told you not to and then he stopped again.

"I drifted off to sleep [and] was awoken by him inside of me. I said what are you doing, have you realised what you have just done?

"And he grunted. I remember trying to process what the hell had just happened - it was shock as well because there was no intention what so ever. Not even a friendly hug. There was no kissing.

"There was no sexual gesture when we were in that room at all. I was in shock because it just came out of nowhere.

"After I asked him what he was doing, I remember the bed shaking as he was masturbating."

In the interview, the woman said Avery was making pleasure noises and grunting as the alleged rape took place.

The court heard Averys DNA was found inside her. In the police interview, she said Avery messaged her the day after the incident asking about what had happened and if she was okay.

She added: "I replied saying I am traumatised by me waking up to you inside of me'.

"He said are you sure? I put yes I am sure. Then he said are you okay? I said no I am not okay after what you did to me, you did not have consent.

"He read that message and never replied."