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A Royal Navy sailor has been jailed for five years after raping a woman as she slept.
The woman woke to find Leading Seaman Sam Avery having sex with her, his hands on her waist and her pants pulled down to her knees.
The woman had turned down two of his previous advances before falling asleep after agreeing to let LS Avery stay the night in her bed.
She said the attack ‘came out of nowhere’ as there was not even a friendly hug or kiss between the two and the only sexual contact between them was the advances she had rejected.
LS 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.
However he was convicted at Bulford Military Court, Wilts, and jailed for five years.
LS Avery was also dismissed from Her Majesty’s Services with disgrace.
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, Hants, 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 LS Avery’s name as he messaged her using a group account.
During the course of her evening at the pub, she had been exchanging messages with LS 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 address 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 LS Avery was making pleasure noises and grunting as the rape took place.
The court heard LS Avery’s DNA was found inside her. In the police interview, she said LS Avery messaged her the day after the incident asking about what had happened and if she was ok.
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.”
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