Able Seaman Rohan Hitch to be demoted and discharged from the Australian Navy after pub groping
Magistrate’s damning words: “Your behaviour on this night was such that, in my mind, you are unfit to hold the rank of Leading Seaman and you are not fit to remain in the defence force.”
Canberra Star
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A drunken sailor who grabbed two women on the vaginas and one on the buttocks while drunk at a pub on shore leave in Hobart has narrowly avoided jail but will likely be booted from the navy in disgrace.
Defence Force Magistrate Brigadier Michael Cowan QC on Tuesday demoted Sydney-based Leading Seaman Rohan Hitch to the rank of Able Seaman and ordered he be kicked out of the service.
“The trouble, in the present case, of course, is that he has touched two (women) on the genitals,” Brigadier Cowan said.
“I don’t know of any case where members touching (women) on the genitals where they don’t get dismissed.”
Able Seaman Hitch’s dishonourable discharge is the subject of an automatic review and could be overturned.
At court in Canberra on Monday, Able Seaman Hitch, currently based at HMAS Kuttabul at Potts Point pleaded guilty to three counts of committing an act of indecency without consent.
He admitted he groped his two victims on their vaginas and one on her buttocks at the Telegraph Hotel in Hobart while on shore leave from his former ship, HMAS Newcastle.
Brigadier Cowan said Able Seaman Hitch had a stellar 13 year career, with the only blemish being an on-board punch up with an Army soldier.
“Any distress that you have suffered has been brought by your own hands, literally and figuratively,” Brigadier Cowan said.
He said Able Seaman Hitch’s offending went against navy values of honour, honesty, courage, integrity and loyalty.
“It’s a particularly uncourageous thing to grope a woman from behind,” he said.
“The only honesty that’s been involved is your guilty plea.”
Brigadier Cowan said of Able Seaman Hitch’s supportive wife and young family: “They no doubt weren’t at the forefront of your intoxicated mind … when you went helping yourself to the genital areas of your two female victims”.
“Your family are victims of your drunken behaviour as well.”
He said Able Seaman Hitch might have ended up serving time in a civilian jail had he persisted with contesting the charges and put his victims through the “embarrassment and upset” of giving evidence in court.
“Your behaviour on this night was such that, in my mind, you are unfit to hold the rank of Leading Seaman and you are not fit to remain in the defence force.”