Benedict Stephens: Lieutenant Colonel guilty of groping the woman, given 20-week jail term

A decorated military intelligence chief was sacked yesterday for a drunken sexual assault on a junior officer.

Lieutenant Colonel Benedict Stephens, 44, who was found guilty of groping the woman last month, was also given a 20-week jail term, suspended for two years, at a military court at Catterick, North Yorkshire.

Stephens, who won the Queen’s Gallantry Medal in 2011 for heroism in Afghanistan, carried out the assault in Dubai in April last year before asking the woman: ‘Are you intimidated by me?

He was also handed 220 hours of unpaid work, 26 rehabilitation days and faces a pension cut.

Following his conviction he had told members of the In-Corps Golfing Group on WhatsApp that the victim’s account was ‘littered with exaggerations’. His victim said this showed ‘he appears to have no remorse’.

During his trial, divorcee Stephens claimed to be so drunk he couldn’t remember the incident after downing around four pints, six cocktails and six shots at the Time Out food hall in Dubai, where he was based with British Defence Staff.

The court martial heard Stephens had been annoying other customers by poking and prodding them. As they were leaving and went down a flight of stairs Stephens sexually assaulted the young woman and flexed his biceps at her.

He made intense eye contact and told her: ‘I want you.’

The victim told the court yesterday the incident had driven her to the brink of suicide. She told him: ‘Not a day goes by where I do not think about how you sexually assaulted me.

‘The verdict has given me some closure, but this incident has fundamentally changed who I am.’

Judge Advocate Edward Legard told Stephens: ‘What you did was unconscionable’. Stephens had been decorated by Denmark for bravery on a special forces operation and received medals for work in Somalia and with the US.