Royal Navy sailor is cleared of raping female colleague after being accused of ignoring pleas to stop by his alleged victim

A Royal Navy sailor has been cleared of raping a female colleague after being accused of ignoring pleas to stop by his alleged victim.

Engineering Technician Richard Kirk was accused of attempting to rape the female sailor as she slept and ignoring her requests to stop sex on two occasions.

The 23-year-old faced trial at Bulford Military Court, Wiltshire, but was today cleared of all charges after he told the court they had consensual sex.

A female colleague of ET Kirk said in 2021 she had woken in the morning to find the sailor half-dressed and ‘on top’ of her after spending the night together. 

She also told that on two other occasions, she had withdrawn her consent during consensual sexual intercourse – and was allegedly ignored by ET Kirk.

But the defendant, who is based at the HMS Drake naval base in Plymouth, Devon, pleaded not guilty to all the offences and said at no time was he ever asked to stop during their intercourse. 

He also said he was never aware of the woman being in pain whilst they had sex. 

ET Kirk, who is based at the HMS Drake naval base in Plymouth, Devon, pleaded not guilty to all the offences and said that all their sex was consensual and at no time was he ever asked to stop

During the three-day trial, the court was told one of the alleged incidents took place in a London hotel room, where the pair were ‘cuddling’ in bed before both falling asleep.

The female sailor claimed she had woken in the morning to find the sailor half-dressed and ‘on top’ of her after spending the night together.

The court was told of another occasion, which happened later that year, where the pair stayed together and started to have sex.

It was heard ET Kirk ‘enjoyed rough sex’ and when the female sailor started to feel pain she asked him to ‘slow down’.

It was heard that he had refused to stop ‘because we were having fun’.

On another occasion, during the same trip, the pair started having ‘consensual sex’.

The court heard that the alleged victim asked ET Kirk to ‘stop’ to which he said, ‘We’ll stop when I want to stop’.

The victim reported the incidents several months after they took place.

Today, ET Kirk was cleared of two counts of rape and one count of attempted rape.