An experienced army sergeant major has been jailed for two and a half years for sexually assaulting a female soldier after a drink-fuelled party at a barracks.
The attack by Warrant Officer Timothy Jones, who has since left the army after 23 years' service, resulted in his victim considering suicide and suffering from nightmares.
Jones, who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Bosnia, was found guilty of sexual assault following a trial at Bulford military court centre in Wiltshire.
Forty-year-old Jones had been drinking with the victim, her female partner and several other soldiers from 9 Theatre Logistic Regiment during a barbecue at a barracks near Chippenham, Wiltshire, in May last year.
Jones, the victim and her partner ended up in the victim's room. The defendant sent a text message to a friend saying: "LOL I'm lying between two lesbians, what should I do?"
The victim later woke up in her bed to find Jones had undressed her from the waist down and was sexually assaulting her.
Sentencing Jones, Alan Large, assistant judge advocate general, said: "At the time of the offence you were the squadron sergeant major with an important role in discipline and setting of standards and junior soldiers looked up to you and respected you and your rank.
"You were an important part of their lives and they were entitled to have you treat them with respect and to keep them safe."
He continued: "We do not think you had sex on your mind when you went back to the room but as the sexual temperature rose that night and as you consumed more alcohol, to put it bluntly, you decided to try your luck.
Large added that he and the panel of senior officers judging the case had reduced the sentence by six months because of the defendant's good service record.
Lieutenant Colonel David Phillips, prosecuting, read a statement written by the victim describing how she had been left feeling suicidal.
She said: "I have been suffering nightmares nearly every night; I have been attacking my partner during my sleep. When the incident initially happened I thought about killing myself because I couldn't cope – I was angry, upset, depressed, I couldn't deal with it. I am less confident, I am on anti-depressants and I suffer from anxiety."
The woman said that she had problems simply entering the corridor of her barracks if she could hear others there and said that her trust in others and the military hierarchy had gone.
Jones joined the army in October 1990, was married to a charity fundraiser and is the father of two children.
Jonathan Simpson, defending, described Jones as an "old dinosaur". He added: "He wants to confront the monster that he was that night so it doesn't happen again."
