Royal Navy sailor ‘punched female colleague five times in the face and dragged her across the road in drunken melee that left her fearing she had lost an eye’

A Royal Navy sailor punched a female colleague in the face five times, split her head open, broke her finger and gave her PTSD during a drunken brawl outside a takeaway, a court martial heard today.

Petty Officer James Brown allegedly threw a ‘hard punch’ at Leading Hand Gemma Brice, causing her to fall to the floor during the late-night brawl involving several navy personnel.

LH Brice had been at a colleague’s leaving do before the violent incident outside a Subway sandwich shop left her with ‘concussion symptoms’ and injuries to her eye so severe that she was worried she may have lost her eye.

PO Brown, of HMS Clyde, was out celebrating a friend’s 30th birthday and did not know LH Brice before the brawl.

The 46-year-old denies one count of GBH and an alternative charge of assault occasioning ABH, claiming he was acting in ‘self-defence’.

Leading Hand Gemma Brice (pictured) suffered a broken finger and has since developed PTSD, a cout heard

Lieutenant Commander Andrew Ramage, prosecuting, told Bulford Military Court, Wiltshire, that the incident happened outside the fast food shop in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in the early hours of July 23, 2022.

He said: ‘At 3.15am outside a Portsmouth Subway Petty Officer Brown punched Leading Hand Gemma Brice five times.

‘LH Brice was caused numerous physical injuries and suffered PTSD.

‘The melee begins because LH Brice knocks someone else’s glasses on the floor, there is clearly tension in the group.’

The court was shown CCTV footage of the brawl in which PO Brown allegedly dragged LH Brice ‘along the road’ as a fracas broke out between a large group of sailors.

Lt Cdr Ramage said: ‘It shows PO Brown getting involved initially as a peacemaker.

‘At 3.18 he pursues another sailor, LH Brice then approaches PO Brown with her arms out and he throws one hard punch.

‘This causes her to fall on the floor, the action also pulls PO Brown to the floor.

‘He gets up and drags her along the road.’

Lt Cdr Ramage revealed that LH Brice was taken to a nearby nightclub for medical treatment before being put in a taxi to attend A&E at nearby Queen Alexandra Hospital.

LH Brice suffered a head injury, a swollen left eye which she was initially told was fractured, a wound to the back of her head which required five stitches and her middle right finger was broken in half.

Lt Cdr Ramage added: ‘The prosecution say the evidence that will be presented will be such we can be sure that PO Brown was not acting in self-defence.’

Giving evidence, LH Brice explained that she had been out with friends to mark one of them leaving the Navy and had been to three pubs before not being ‘let in’ to Popworld nightclub, going to another club and later leaving for Subway, which was closing as they arrived.

Having had drinks throughout the night LH Brice said her memory was ‘hazy’ but she could remember the atmosphere in the Subway being ‘tense’ between the two groups.

Recounting the night she said: ‘My last memory was being inside Subway and joking.

‘I have got a memory of it being tense, everything was very tense and then I remember sitting up and there was blood on the back of my head and I could not see out of my eye.’

The court was shown CCTV footage of the brawl in which PO Brown allegedly dragged LH Brice ‘along the road’

She said she was ‘in and out of consciousness’ on the way to the hospital where she was given a CT scan.

After the scan, a doctor told her that her eye socket was fractured, although at a follow-up appointment two weeks later she was told this was not the case.

LH Brice told the court: ‘My eye was swollen shut, they did not know if I still had an eye.

‘We had to wait for the swelling to go down.

‘I needed five stitches, the hair was really matted with blood.’

HMS Clyde was commissioned in 2007 and is an offshore patrol vessel.

The two-day trial continues.