Senior officers vouch for ‘hard working’ sex offender Sub Lieutenant Callum Hicks
A verdict has been handed down for a naval officer who was accused of sexually choking a woman at a work function.
Canberra Star
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One of Australia’s top naval officers has told a court a convicted sex offender is an intelligent man and a hard worker who would be an “asset” to the defence force in coming years.
Captain Stephen Bowater on Wednesday gave character evidence vouching for Sub Lieutenant Callum Hicks, who was earlier found guilty of committing an act of indecency without consent and assaulting a subordinate by sexually choking a woman at a work function after prodding her for details about her love life and then rubbing her thigh.
Sub Lieutenant Hicks was also found guilty of assault in a public place after he earlier stroked another woman’s thigh under the table of a restaurant in Melbourne, reaching nearly as high as her underpants.
Captain Bowater said Sub Lieutenant Hicks was intelligent and a “conscientious, hard worker”.
Captain Bowater, who oversees more than 3500 sailors and officers, said he “saw nothing to question (Hicks’s) values” during the stint Sub Lieutenant Hicks served as his staff officer.
He agreed Sub Lieutenant Hicks was an “asset and future prospect” for the navy, which is desperately short of Maritime Warfare Officers.
Captain Bowater was one of four officers who gave glowing evidence in support for Sub Lieutenant Hicks on Wednesday.
The court also heard Sub Lieutenant Hicks had been an outstanding tuba player at the Australian Defence Force Academy and that he had persevered through his struggles with being fat.
In finding Sub Lieutenant Hicks guilty of all charges, Defence Force Magistrate Brigadier Michael Cowen, QC, rejected the suggestion that the choking was “ham acting” and “joking” between two adults.
He also rejected the argument that the woman consented to being sexually choked by responding “OK” to Sub Lieutenant Hicks when he said “I’m going to try something now” before choking her.
“It was without her consent and he either knew it, or was reckless as to whether she wasn’t consenting,” he said.
“It may well be that he wasn’t bothered by the fact that she wasn’t consenting or he was enjoying the fact that she wasn’t consenting.”
Brigadier Cowan said: “While the act was taking place I accept that he put to her that she was getting turned on by (it) and I accept that he said to her that he could see she was uncomfortable and he was getting turned on by that.”
Sub Lieutenant Hicks will be sentenced on Thursday.