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Naval officer Sub Lieutenant Callum Hicks pleads not guilty to indecency and assault

Naval officer Callum Hicks allegedly choked a woman at an official function, said he was getting “turned on” and complained his girlfriend was too “vanilla” in bed to please him, a court has heard.

HMAS Watson, where Sub Lieutenant Callum Hicks was based when he allegedly choked a woman after quizzing her if she liked rough sex.
HMAS Watson, where Sub Lieutenant Callum Hicks was based when he allegedly choked a woman after quizzing her if she liked rough sex.

A naval officer cornered a woman at a function overlooking Sydney Harbour, asked if she liked rough sex, “moaned sexually” at her, choked her and complained his girlfriend was too “vanilla” in bed to please him, a court has heard.

At a Defence Force Magistrates Court hearing in Canberra, Sub Lieutenant Callum Hicks pleaded not guilty to committing an act of indecency without consent and to a separate assault charge stemming from him stroking a woman’s thigh under the table of a restaurant in Melbourne, when he allegedly rubbed the woman’s leg “up and down” almost as high as her underwear.

Sub Lieutenant Callum Hicks (right) has pleaded not guilty to indecency and assault charges in the Defence Force Magistrates Court. Source: Supplied
Sub Lieutenant Callum Hicks (right) has pleaded not guilty to indecency and assault charges in the Defence Force Magistrates Court. Source: Supplied

The alleged choking victim, who cannot be named, said she was making small talk with Sub Lieutenant Hicks when he “started asking me sexual questions, about my sex life”.

“He asked me if I like it rough in the bedroom and if I like my hair being pulled during sex,” she said.

“He then asked me if I liked being choked during sex … then he proceeded to ask me some more dirty questions.”

“He asked me if I liked anal and if I enjoyed gaping.”

The woman said she did not know was “gaping” was, and when Sub Lieutenant Hicks told her, “I responded with … ‘f*ck no, not into that’.”

“He responded with: ‘my girlfriend is very vanilla in the bedroom so she doesn’t satisfy him’,” the woman said.

Sub Lieutenant Callum Hicks (right) has pleaded not guilty to indecency and assault charges in the Defence Force Magistrates Court. Source: Supplied/Facebook
Sub Lieutenant Callum Hicks (right) has pleaded not guilty to indecency and assault charges in the Defence Force Magistrates Court. Source: Supplied/Facebook

The woman said Sub Lieutenant Hicks then said “I’m just going to try something” before “he reached and grabbed me by the throat”.

“He said: ‘you’re getting turned on by this, aren’t you,” the woman said.

“I said: ‘no’.

“He said he could tell that I was turned on by what he did, I said ‘no’.”

The woman said Sub Lieutenant Hicks said: “I call tell you’re uncomfortable right now and that’s turning me on”.

“He then said, I’m going to touch your arse, I said, ‘no, you’re not’, he said, ‘I’m going to touch you’re arse and you’re going to like it.”

Shortly after, when the woman told a friend, the friend said she “found him to be a bit of a creep … (who) tried to bring up his sex life”.

When Sub Lieutenant Hicks was quizzing the woman about her sex life, she said he was “biting his lip and making groaning noises”.

During the separate, earlier incident at the restaurant in Melbourne, Sub Lieutenant Hicks is alleged to have rubbed his hand up and down a woman’s thigh repeatedly, continuing even after she had asked him to stop.

The alleged victim in that incident said: “I felt like … he had mistaken my leg for something else, like a table leg or somebody else’s until it got more progressive and upwards.”

At first it was somebody brushing me and then it became more (a) rubbing up and down movement,” she said.

“I said, ‘stop, that’s my leg’, and he laughed and removed his hand.

“Then he placed it back on my leg a bit higher this time and continued.”

The trial continues.

Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/canberra-star/naval-officer-sub-lieutenant-callum-hicks-pleads-not-guilty-to-indecency-and-assault/news-story/1a96784157ec91ee6f52436e9e9b05f3