Shadi Kantibye: ADF member pleads not guilty to indecent assault

A woman has told the Defence Force Magistrate Court she was allegedly forced to endure a drunk soldier groping her - even licking her face at one point - despite her telling him to stop.

A Canberra military court has heard a tearful account from a female ADF member about an alleged groping incident.

Australian Defence Force member Private Shadi Kantibye pleaded not guilty to one count of indecent assault against a female ADF colleague in the Defence Force Magistrate’s Court.

On Monday, the court heard Kantibye and the complainant met while training at Kapooka and began a sexual relationship while stationed at Bandiana Barracks in Albury-Wodonga.

The complainant worked through tears as she told the court she was woken by a drunk Kantibye banging on the doors of her room at Bandiana in the early hours of February 23, 2020.

The court heard the woman told Kantibye to lie down on the spare bed before she left for the bathroom.

Private Shadi Kantibye is accused of indecently assaulting a female ADF colleague. Picture: Julia Kanapathippillai

After returning to her room the complainant found Kantibye stripped down to his underwear in the room.

She told the court she went to her bed to sleep and was joined by the defendant.

“I was lying on my back and he started cuddling me,” she said.

“He touched me everywhere, arms legs, boobs, and vagina.

“He licked my face at one point.”

The complainant told the court Kantibye began touching her genitals.

“I just said ‘no, stop it, no’,” she said.

“At some point I stopped speaking because nothing I said stopped it.”

The complainant said she rolled to her left side into a foetal position to avoid Kantibye.

“(When I turned away) Private Kantibye began rubbing his erect penis on my bum and he was still feeling me up,” she said.

“I had to lie there and take it until it stopped.”

The complainant said she spoke to two male colleagues about the incident who helped her confront Kantibye about the incident on the evening of February 23 2020.

The complainant told the court Kantibye said “please tell me this isn’t going to affect my career” to her.

She said she wouldn’t report the incident but said she would cut off all contact with him.

“I said I’d be polite to him but we were not friends any more,” she said.

The court heard the woman filed a report on the alleged incident in June 2020.

She said she “almost had a panic attack” after seeing Kantibye at an ADF base in Darwin.

When asked by Defending Officer Major David Healey why she didn’t report the incident earlier, the complainant said she was scared.

“I thought I could push on but I almost had a panic attack when I saw him,” she said.

During cross examination the complainant was asked by Major Healey about her sexual history with Kantibye.

“The only thing that was not consensual was the assault we are referring to (in this trial),” she said.

The hearing continues.