An “unhappy and introverted” female soldier was used as a “plaything” by two popular and successful colleagues who raped her following a drunken evening in a corporals’ mess bar, a court martial has heard.
Anne-Marie Ellement killed herself two years after the alleged assault by her colleagues, Jeremy Jones and Thomas Fulton, while all three were posted in Germany, the court was told.
In a video interview shown to the court, Ellement, who was found extremely distressed and naked apart from a cardigan, said she had not agreed to sex but was forced by her two colleagues.
Jones and Fulton, both 28, have said they had a consensual “threesome” with Ellement, a member of the Royal Military police, and deny raping her in November 2009.
In her closing speech at Bulford court martial centre in Wiltshire, Sarah Whitehouse QC, prosecuting, urged the board hearing the case not to dismiss the incident as the “culture of the army … what goes on at the end of a hard day”.
She said Ellement, who was 28 at the time, was an outsider, considered “strange” by some and “shit at her job” by others, while one witness said she was not even seen as a “good sexual conquest”.
On the other hand, said Whitehouse, Jones and Fulton were “golden boys”, popular and good at their jobs. “They fitted in, they were nice, respected chaps, honest and intelligent,” she said.
The three were drinking and joking together in the mess bar before the alleged attack. Whitehouse suggested that Ellement was probably pleased to be receiving so much attention. The court martial has heard that the three then went to Jones’s room. “It was the stuff of porn movies,” said Whitehouse. “She was a plaything.”
Ellement, naked apart from a brown cardigan, was discovered crying and with muddy feet outside her accommodation at 1.37am. Whitehouse said she was in an “extreme state of distress”, incoherent and with her eyes rolling back into her head.
In her account, Ellement said she remembered Fulton being “on top of me” and her saying: “No, it’s really hurting.” She added: “The last thing I remember is Jez grabbing my breasts. Then I have a massive memory block and I can’t remember anything. I can’t remember how I got back to my accommodation.”
Whitehouse said that six to seven hours afterwards, Ellement was still one-and-a-half times over the legal drink-drive limit. She also had a wrist injury that she claimed was caused when Fulton held her down.
The prosecutor said the lack of Ellement’s presence at the court martial made it difficult for all sides. But she claimed she had no reason to “cry rape” when to do so had risked making her even more of an outsider.
In the witness box both men have insisted Ellement was a willing and enthusiastic participant in consensual sex. Making his closing speech, Anthony Berry QC, for Fulton, said the pair had shown “fortitude and sang-froid”, adding: “Lesser men may have been overwhelmed and have found it very difficult to cope.” He said Fulton had served with distinction in Afghanistan, dealing with improvised explosive devices, bomb factories and insurgents.
Berry said Ellement had problems, which led her to behave in “slightly odd ways”. He said she was given to excessive drinking, depression and was unpopular. He suggested it was her unhappiness that led her to seek attention in the mess bar that night and she was “entwined” with the defendants there before going to Jones’s room.
“She wasn’t raped,” said Berry. “She [Ellement] was entirely consensual.” He added it was likely that Ellement was “putting on a show” when she appeared to be upset.
Justin Rouse QC, for Jones, said both defendants were “outstanding and decent young men”. He called Ellement’s death an “abiding tragedy” but said it had nothing to do with the issues the board had to consider and said they should not be swayed by the sympathy they may feel for the dead woman or her family.
The board, which comprises military personnel and civil servants, is due to consider its verdicts on Wednesday.
