A female sailor accused of carrying out a string of sexual assaults on male and female crewmates was dubbed a ‘cancer on the ship’, a court martial was told.
‘Opportunistic’ Able Seaman Sian Dowsett, 25, allegedly groped four of her Royal Navy colleagues – two of them men and two of them women.
Based on a Navy warship, ‘bisexual’ AB Dowsett is accused of grabbing the male sailors by their crotch, stroking their arms, and making comments such as ‘I like my coffee how I like my men, big and strong’.
One man who said he had his bottom slapped three times by AB Dowsett on HMS Dauntless told investigators she was ‘a bit of a cancer on the ship’.
AB Dowsett also allegedly smacked women sailors’ behinds and squeezed their breasts, asking one: ‘Do you like that baby girl?’
Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire was told the seven counts of sexual assault she is on trial over ‘ranged from nipple pinching to bottom slapping and genital grabbing’.
She described herself in a service police interview as ‘heterosexual,’ but she said that in the past she had ‘bisexual tendencies’.
AB Dowsett carried out the assaults in 2023 and 2024, it was heard.
Prosecutor Graham Coombes said AB Dowsett had told a male colleague’s girlfriend before he left that she would ‘look after him’ and his girlfriend had warned him to be ‘careful’ around her.
The court heard that two weeks into the deployment, she had slapped the bottom of an Able Seaman in the galley as he was leaning over to write a list, leaving him ‘stunned’.
He didn’t report the incident because he said that it was ‘a long deployment’ and he didn’t want to make a bad environment early on.
A week later, AB Dowsett allegedly slapped his bottom again in the galley in front of another sailor.
He said that it happened a third time and he later snapped at her that he would report her if she ever ‘slapped him on the arse again’.
In his police interview, he said: ‘It is just disrespectful. A lack of respect really. I wouldn’t do that at all and the fact that she has done that three times is just ridiculous.
‘Unfortunately, she is a bit of a cancer on the ship. She has affected the ship very negatively. She has definitely hindered me and my girlfriend’s relationship.’
Mr Coombes said that AB Dowsett grabbed the breasts of a petty officer on HMS Dauntless and ‘caressed her nipple’ between her thumb and finger, while saying ‘do you like that baby girl?’
He said: ‘This was both unwanted, and she felt that it was sexual in nature.’
The petty officer told the court the alleged assault took place when she was getting ready for a night out and had walked between her cabin and a friend’s without a top on because she was getting changed.
She said that AB Dowsett had ‘cupped’ her boobs and ‘caressed her nipple’ in a sexual way that made her feel ‘uncomfortable’.
The petty officer said she was surprised because she was not friends with AB Dowsett.
She said that she had known her to be bisexual and had thought that she was trying to ask if her holding her nipple ‘turned her on’.
Giving evidence to the court, she said that she came forward with the allegation after hearing that another girl had accused AB Dowsett.
She said: ‘I had known other females in the military who had gone through it legally and how difficult it had been for them.
‘I didn’t want to come forward, but I had heard about the other girl who came forward and thought that was really brave.’
On a separate occasion, AB Dowsett had told a male Leading Hand ‘I like my coffee how I like my men, big and strong’.
Then, when they were taking a lesson together, she had stroked his arm, saying that he had ‘lovely skin’.
Mr Coombes said that AB Dowsett then repeatedly ‘pinched his left nipple’ while keeping eye contact with him.
He said the sailor ‘froze’ and didn’t want to report it.
Mr Coombes also said that the sailor had been approached by AB Dowsett after they had returned from deployment and she grabbed his genitals.
In another incident, Mr Coombes said that AB Dowsett had ‘slapped the bottom’ of a female Able Seaman, who had only joined the ship three days prior, while she was lying on her bed.
He said: ‘She smacked it with such force that she caused her bottom to sting.’
AB Dowsett claims allegations were ‘made up’ because people on the ship didn’t like her and there were rumours about her going around.
The four-day trial continues.
