Married general becomes first special ops chief to be charged with sexual assault in military history
A SPECIAL operations general has been charged with sexual assault for the first time in military history, The Sun on Sunday can reveal.
Major General James Roddis — a decorated war hero — is due before a military court this month to enter a plea.
The married father of three, 52, is thought to be the most senior officer to face a court martial for an alleged sex crime.
He is only the second Major General to face military trial in more than 200 years.
He was charged under Section 3 of the Sexual Offences Act, which covers sexual assault by touching.
Yesterday, the Army revealed that Maj Gen Roddis was no longer serving — but did not explain why.
They said the trial would still take place at Bulford Military Courts in Wiltshire.
An Army spokesman added: “Ex-Major General James Roddis will appear at Bulford Military Court Centre on 17 July 2024 charged with sexual assault contrary to Section 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.”
The spokesman went on: “We expect very high standards of behaviour from all our personnel and take any allegations of misconduct extremely seriously.”
Until recently, Maj Gen Roddis, who was born in Aberdour, Fife, Scotland, was director of strategy at Strategic Command, which oversees SAS missions and offensive cyber warfare.
Before that, he founded the Army’s Specialised Infantry Brigade — now called the Special Operations Brigade — and led it from 2017 to 2022.
Over the course of his 30-year career, he won a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for commanding 4 Scots, the Highlanders regiment, in Afghanistan in 2014.
He was made an MBE in 2009 and won two Queen’s Commendations for Valuable Service — one in 2008 and the second in 2017.
He was mentioned in dispatches for combat in Iraq in 2004.
He also spent more than a decade in “specialist military” missions which took him to 20 countries, according to his CV.
These included four combat tours of Iraq and Afghanistan, where he led groups of up to 120 soldiers.
Maj Gen Roddis, the eldest son of a Royal Navy officer, was also made deputy colonel of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, in an honorary role alongside King Charles.
The last time a Major General faced court martial was in 2021, when Maj Gen Nick Welch was convicted of school fees fraud.
He was sentenced to 21 months in prison.
Welch was the first Major General to face court martial since 1815 when Lieutenant General Sir John Murray was convicted of abandoning his siege guns without due cause in the Napoleonic Wars.
His conviction came weeks after Major General Chris Bell was ordered to resign for lying to his bosses about a relationship with a reservist in the secretive 77th Brigade, a psychological warfare unit.
Maj Gen Bell’s disciplinary case was dealt with by the Army board and never went to court martial.
The Sun on Sunday approached Maj Gen Roddis for comment.