Shadi Kantibye: ADF member dismissed after being found guilty of groping female soldier

A solider has been dismissed from the Australian Defence Force after being found guilty of groping a female colleague.

A soldier has been dismissed from the Army after being found guilty of groping a female service member.

Private Shadi Kantibye, 22, appeared before the Defence Force Magistrates court in Canberra via videolink from Darwin on Friday.

He pleaded not guilty to one charge of indecent assault without consent when the trial began on November 15 and claimed he was not even in the complainant’s room when the offending occurred.

The court heard Kantibye assaulted a female service member in her bed while stationed at Bandiana Barracks in Albury-Woodonga in the early hours of Sunday February 23 2020.

The complainant told the court Kantibye licked her right cheek, touched her breasts, placed his hand down her pants and rubbed her vagina through her underwear, and rubbed his erect penis on her buttocks even after she turned away and said “no” and “stop” repeatedly.

In sentencing, Defence Force Magistrate Group Captain Scott Geeves said Kantibye did not express any remorse or contrition.

He described the defendant's actions as “so inconsistent” with ADF values and said he had a “complete lack of integrity, complete lack of respect.”

Group Captain Geeves said while Kantibye was only 21 at the time of offending he should have understood consent due to mandatory training and life experience.

“When a person, male or female, tells you to stop you do so automatically,” he said.

He described the complainant as an impressive witness while Kantibye’s evidence was “less than convincing.”

Shadi Kantibye was found guilty of indecent assault.

The court heard evidence from another Private who Kantibye described as “his alibi” during the proceedings, however the private said he was “heavily intoxicated”.

The man said he had been drinking “sun up to sun down” since the Friday afternoon and had experienced blackouts resulting from his drinking.

Group Captain Geeves described the man as an unreliable witness due to his intoxication at the time of offending.

The defence entered a series of Snapchat videos with the aim of providing an alibi, however the magistrate said the videos offered “little support” to Kantibye’s case as there was a gap between 3am and 4.25am which corresponded to the time of the alleged offending.

The magistrate rejected Defending Officer Major David Healy’s submissions the complainant lied about the incident happening and the complainant mistook another Private she had kissed earlier that night for Kantibye.

Major Healy questioned the gap between the incident and the official complaint to military police - more than four months - but Group Captain Geeves said the complainant confided in Private Adam Meek and former Private Alexander Flori soon after the incident and was therefore less likely to have fabricated the story.

The complainant was tearful as she read out her victim impact statement to the court prior to sentencing.

“I said no for 45 minutes … hopefully you understand now that no means no,” she said.

“I get triggered seeing (Kantibye) … I freeze like I’m back in that bed being assaulted again.

“I will not let this ruin my life. I will not let this event define me.

“Maybe through therapy I’ll have some semblance of a normal life

“Maybe one day I’ll enjoy sex again.”