Dion Francis Dodd: Sailor not guilty of groping sleeping colleague

A sailor has been found not guilty of groping a colleague while deployed in the Middle East following a trial plagued by concerns of contaminated evidence. Find out what happened.

A sailor accused of groping a sleeping colleague while deployed overseas five years ago has been acquitted following a trial plagued by a “dark cloud” of evidence contamination concerns.

Able Seaman Dion Francis Dodd faced a three day magistrate-only trial at the Defence Force Magistrates Court in Canberra this week charged with an act of indecency without consent.

It was alleged in September 2017 AB Dodd touched the penis of a fellow sailor without his consent at a hotel room at the Crystal Elite Hotel in Manama, Bahrain in September 2017.

The complainant told the court he and a few colleagues went out to a few bars in Manama while on shore leave.

Using a Facebook account under the false name of “Anthony Watkins” for privacy reasons, AB Dodd told the complainant he had booked a hotel room for the night and told him he was welcome to visit.

Able Seaman Dion Dodd was found not guilty of an act of indecency without consent following a three day trial at the Defence Force Magistrates Court in Canberra. Picture: Supplied

Later that night the complainant asked AB Dodd if he and three other sailors could come over to the hotel room.

When the group arrived, the accuser and another sailor felt tired and decided to sleep on the king size bed in AB Dodd’s hotel room.

The court heard in the Navy, it was considered normal and non-sexual for sailors to sleep in the same bed.

AB Dodd and another sailor went to the rooftop bar in the hotel as the two men fell asleep.

After returning from the bar, AB Dodd said he shook the complainant slightly and told him to move over so he could lie on the bed.

The accuser told the court in the early hours of the morning he woke in the middle of the bed and found AB Dodd with one arm underneath him around the top of his chest and the other hand stroking his penis underneath his jeans and underwear.

He told the court he knew it was Dodd touching his penis because there was light in the room and he noticed the defendant’s dark skin.

He said after realising what had happened he yelled “what the f**k”, jumped up and left the bed, and went into the living area to sleep on an armchair.

Under cross examination the accuser was asked if he had joked about the incident, and if he compared Dodd’s groping to Captain Jack Sparrow’s coin trick.

The Elite Crystal Hotel in Manama, Bahrain. Dion Dodd was acquitted after facing allegations he groped a colleauge at a room in the hotel. Picture: supplied

He agreed he had joked about the incident but said it was a coping mechanism to deal with an incident which made him feel “embarrassment and shame”.

The defending officer asked if he had rubbed AB Dodd’s bottom to initiate sexual activity or if it was possible he made a gesture in his sleep denoting consent.

The complainant denied both suggestions.

The court heard the accuser initially didn’t want to go through criminal proceedings and instead opted to go through an administrative investigation.

However after seeing AB Dodd in the same programs as him, the accuser felt uncomfortable at work.

He said the administrative system did not deal with the complaint and said someone had even apologised to him for the system not resolving the issue.

When asked if he had planned on seeking a trial for the alleged offence the complainant said “I didn’t think I had to”.

“I had faith in the admin system,” he said.

He said he was told by colleagues if he didn’t take the issue further, incidents like this could happen to others.

Able Seaman Dion Dodd shields his face as he leaves the Defence Force Magistrates Court in Canberra on July 27. Picture: Martin Ollman

“I wanted justice for what I had been through,” he said.

“So others didn’t have to go through what I went through.”

The court also heard testimony from the third sailor in the bed who was asked by defence lawyers if he knew AB Dodd was gay before deciding to sleep in his hotel bed.

“Just because someone is gay doesn’t mean he’d do something wrong,” the witness said.

He told the court he remembered the complainant leaving the bed abruptly, but did not hear him say “what the f**k”.

A significant issue that occurred in the prosecution’s case was the revelation the accuser and the third sailor in the bed had shared their statements from years earlier only three weeks prior to the trial.

To make matters more complicated, both men deleted the email thread where they shared their statements after being told by Military Police they had done the wrong thing, which led to them both being accused of deleting evidence.

Both men maintained they barely read the other person’s statement, yet this did not alleviate concerns about evidence contamination.

Defence lawyers also scrutinised another prosecution witness; a former sailor who was the leader of the mess in the unit at the time, and accused him of pushing the man to make a complaint against AB Dodd.

The man told the court he made a “welfare check” on the complainant after notice a change in demeanour and told him about the options available to report the alleged incident.

Dion Dodd at The Hookers Ball, at Opium Nightclub in 2015. Picture: Elise Derwin

In cross-examination the man was asked if he knew Dodd was gay and if ke knew he had previously been a dancer at a Darwin nightclub.

“He was quite open about it,” the man said.

Lawyers asked the man if he had a grudge against AB Dodd, noting he had reprimanded the accused for failing to secure his bedding on the ship.

The witness said he could not recall if he had reprimanded the defendant and denied having any agenda against him.

While giving evidence AB Dodd told the court he touched the complainant’s penis through his clothes, and said he believed the encounter was consensually initiated by the complainant.

He said the complainant rubbed his bottom for about 10 seconds with an open hand while in bed.

AB Dodd told the court in previous sexual encounters with men, touching such as this had been used to initiate sexual activity and denote consent.

He said he remembered the complainant leaving the room and did recall him yelling “what the f**k”, and took that as a sign the complainant was not interested and did not pursue anything further.

Dion Dodd told the court he thought the complainant was initiating sexual contact. Picture: Martin Ollman

In ending the trial Defence Force Magistrate Group Captain Scott Geeves said the complainant made an “earnest effort to recall events to the best of his recollection”.

Group Captain Geeves described AB Dodd as an “honest and impressive witness” who did not embellish his testimony and was unshaken during the hearing.

“The real issue is there are two completely different versions of events that are in their own way plausible,” Group Captain Geeves said.

The magistrate said he doubted the accuser didn’t know it was wrong to share statements with other witnesses.

“(Sharing statements) casts a dark cloud on the reliability of the complainant and (witness) statements,” he said.

“I remain in a state of reasonable doubt regarding consent.

“I find you not guilty.”

Following the handing down of his verdict, Group Captain Geeves said processes in the Defence Force justice system may need to be “tightened up” to ensure evidence was not contaminated.