British Army Gurkha accused of sexually assaulting female colleague at Sandhurst, court hears
‘They are Gurkhas and they look the same’: Woman was sexually assaulted by soldier at Sandhurst after he ‘pretended to be a soldier she’d previously slept with after banging on her door’ and asking ‘do you remember me from last weekend?’, court hears
Sujan Gurung is accused of sexually assaulting a female colleague at SandhurstCourt told Gurung impersonated other Gurkha who had sex with woman earlier Rifleman Gurung denied three counts of sexual assault and the trial continues
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Pictured: Rifleman Sujan Gurung has denied three counts of sexual assault
A British Army Gurkha sexually assaulted a female colleague at Sandhurst military academy by ‘impersonating’ another soldier she had previously slept with, a court martial heard today.
Rifleman Sujan Gurung woke the woman by banging on her bedroom door in the early hours of the morning before pretending he was another Gurkha she had sex with a week earlier.
The court heard the member of the renowned Nepalese regiment ‘took advantage’ of the female soldier’s confusion in the dark room before she could realise it was a different man.
She told police she initially could not tell them apart because ‘they are all Gurkhas and they all look the same’.
Rfn Gurung, a member of support staff at the world famous Royal Military Academy, repeatedly asked her ‘do you remember me from last weekend?’ during the incident, the court heard.
Sandhurst is located on the Berkshire border and is where British Army officers are trained. Both Prince William and Harry, Duke of Sussex, attended the academy.
Today Rfn Gurung appeared at Bulford Military Court, Wilts, assisted by a Nepalese interpreter, as he faced trial for three charges of sexual assault.
William Peters, prosecuting, told the hearing the assault took place in the victim’s bedroom in an accommodation block at Sandhurst.
He said: ‘She went to bed early, she drank about two and a half bottles of beer but didn’t finish the drinks because she was tired and fell asleep.
‘The next thing she knew she was awoken at about 3.45am to continuous knocking on her door, her door was locked and the handle was being tried.
‘[She] had no idea who it was or what they wanted. The next thing she saw a face at the window.
‘It occurred to her then that it might have been a man she had slept with the previous weekend.
The court heard Gurung was drunk when he banged on the woman’s door and took advantage of the dark by impersonating another Gurkha who he knew she had had sex with a week earlier
‘A very drunk Rfn Gurung was persistently banging on [her] door. Awoken from sleep and in virtual darkness she evidently opened the door to him, thinking it might have been a Gurkha she had had a drunken sexual encounter with in her room the week before.
‘At this stage she thought it was the same man from before and wasn’t concerned because what happened between them was consensual.
‘In fact, [Rfn Gurung] pretended to be the other man by asking her if she remembered the weekend before and at one point telling her his name [was the other man’s name].
Mr Peters said Rfn Gurung tried to get her to drink some Jagermeister he had brought with him and some of the beer she had left unfinished, before launching an assault on her.’
The prosecutor described how Gurung leaned over and kissed her neck and face before he lifted up her pyjama top and started touching her sexually.
He added: ‘He started placing his hand down her shorts, she pulled his hand away and kept telling him no.
The alleged assault took place at the famous Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (pictured)
‘He asked her if she remembered him from the weekend before. She asked him what his name was and he said [the other man’s name].’
The court heard she had saved the previous Gurkha’s number in her phone as ‘Gurkha 1’ and said she would ring it, at which point ‘it became clear to her he was not the same man’.
The only way she could get rid of him was by telling him she did not want to have sex that night because she was sober but would be drinking with his unit the following night.
After he left, she told her friends what had happened and also called ‘Gurkha 1’ to see if he had come to her room that night and he told her it was not him.
The court heard Rfn Gurung told the Royal Military Police he was ‘very drunk that night and didn’t know exactly what happened’.
He said he may have accidentally touched the female soldier’s chest but denied everything else.
Gurung says he does not remember the incident because he was drunk and the trial continues
Mr Peters added: ‘The reality is that due to drink Rfn Gurung has little recollection of what he did that night… in the intervening week, one way or another,[he] must have known [she] slept with a Gurkha.
‘That is the only sensible explanation as to why he would have used that name.’
The female soldier told Royal Military Police she was ‘confused’ and initially thought Rfn Gurung must have been the other Gurkha she had slept with before because it was dark in her room and ‘they are all Gurkhas and they all look the same’.
She told the court she ‘didn’t want to kick off’ after he started kissing her in case it was the same Gurkha.
But when Rfn Gurung started impersonating the other man she said she could tell by his accent that it was a different man.
She said: ‘He asked me if I remembered him from the weekend before. The way that he was talking, he was pretending to be that gentleman from before.’
The court heard she drank some beer the next day and went to confront the Gurkhas about the incident to find out who it was, flipping a table of food in the process.
Matthew Bolt, defending Rfn Gurung, suggested the female soldier had been ‘exaggerating’ the encounter, because she was worried about getting into trouble for her actions the day after.
He said: ‘In fearing the repercussions you exaggerated what happened… because you wanted to protect yourself.’
The female soldier adamantly denied this.
Rfn Gurung, of 1 Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles, denies three counts of sexual assault by touching.
The trial continues.
