Sailor on trial for sexual assault ‘told victim she had a sex dream about her’
A sailor allegedly caressed her colleague inappropriately before asking her: ‘How do you let someone know that you had a sex dream about them?’
Petty officer Christina Reaney, who works for the Royal Navy Police, has been accused of sexual assault. She denies the charges against her.
Reaney had been drinking brandy with other sailors in the HMS Queen Elizabeth’s mess on the night of the assault, the alleged victim told Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire.
She said she walked into a bedroom to find Reaney ‘naked as the day she was born’ in bed with another woman who was fully clothed.
After this woman left the room, Reaney then got into the alleged victim’s bed, the court heard today.
The complainant said: ‘(Reaney) climbed over me so she had her back against the wall and she was facing me.
‘She was carrying on with the conversation and as she was talking about her night she started touching me over my clothing with her fingertips.
‘It was quite a casual movement, but she was stroking up and down on my body. She first touched me on the waist.’
The woman continued: ‘Then, she traced up to my breast and circled it and put her fingertips back down. She was just caressing me and then put the tips of her fingers on my waist band.
‘I was frozen and I didn’t know how to react, I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to give it any more attention and make it a more hostile environment.
‘It was not something I was expecting, she was not invited, it was a new experience, intrusive and a massive invasion of my space’.
The uncomfortable sailor said she tried to give Reaney a ‘strong hint’ by getting out of bed to brush her teeth.
But Reaney allegedly followed the woman into the bathroom and hugged her from behind.
This is when Reaney is said to have asked her colleague: ‘How do you let someone know that you had a sex dream about them?’
The alleged victim claims she answered: ‘you don’t’, before trying to unpeel Reaney’s arms from her body.
‘I think (Reaney) felt like it was harmless flirting, I was mortified and uncomfortable, angry, upset and confused as to what had happened,’ the sailor said.
The complainant said Reaney was ‘nonchelant’, drunk and ‘quite giggly – finding the situation to be quite funny’.
Reaney not only denies sexually assaulting anyone, but she also insists she was never naked in bed with the first woman mentioned.
Reaney believes the alleged victim is making up the allegations because she is ‘jealous’ of Reaney’s friendship with this woman.
It became known that the complainant had a crush on this woman after she left a note on her bed, inviting her to spoon.
The alleged victim admits having feelings for the woman but stands by her accusations.
The trial continues.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.