Married British army officer denies raping servicewoman 'too drunk to consent' after UN event
A married British Army officer accused of raping a drunk subordinate servicewoman had stopped drinking during the night but encouraged waiters to fill her glass, a court martial in the US was told.
Lieutenant Colonel Benedict Tomkins, 49, of Defence, Equipment and Support, allegedly attacked the woman after a dinner and free bar at a United Nations event in Uganda.
The two-time Afghanistan veteran, 49, is accused of raping her after entering her room at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala under the pretences of working on a presentation on the night of January 7 2015.
FBI Special Agent Ronald Brown told the the court martial at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Thursday of the report she provided him with around a month later.
Giving evidence via a videolink from Islamabad, Pakistan, he said: "She said every time her glass was partially empty of wine the server kept filling it up.
"At some point it seemed Colonel Tomkins stopped drinking but encouraged the server to keep filling her glass."
The complainant previously told the court she could not remember whose suggestion it was to work in her room and had said her recollection is "hazy".
But the agent said: "She thinks she suggested doing this in the hotel lobby but Colonel Tomkins suggested doing it in her hotel room because that's where her notes were."
The complainant says Tomkins' "overpowered" her and she was also too drunk to consent to sex.
Tomkins, an officer of the Rifles regiment, based at Abbey Wood, near Bristol, denies rape and claims the sex was consensual.
The court martial is the first to be scheduled to take place in both the US and the UK. The decision was made to allow witnesses to give evidence in America.
Tomkins denies one count of rape between January 6-9 2015. The trial continues.
