Fiend Navy Seaman Star Brodie Reid sexually assaulted female colleague at HMAS Cerberus

A navy sailor from Redcliffe has been suspended on full pay after a brazen sexual assault on a female colleague while on duty at HMAS Cerberus.

A Royal Australian Navy sailor sexually assaulted a female colleague while both were on duty at HMAS Cerberus because he was stressed, a court has heard.

Brodie Reid, 19, pleaded guilty at the Defence Force Magistrates Court sitting at HMAS Cerberus on Tuesday to committing an act of indecency without consent.

Reid assaulted his victim in a common room at the Crib Point training base in late-2020.

The court heard Reid grabbed his victim’s hand and placed it on his erect penis.

“Do you like that?” Reid asked.

“Just do it, no one is going to see it.”

Reid repeated his lewd conduct then attempted to grab his victim’s groin area.

The sex fiend removed his penis from his pants, grabbed his victim’s head and forced it towards his groin, the court heard.

“It will be fine, no one will see,” Reid said.

The victim later recalled her head came within 10cm of Reid’s penis.

A person who entered the room and interrupted Reid said they saw him adjusting his groin area.

Reid was hauled in for a record of interview days later.

The victim, in her victim impact statement read to the court, said she endures “emotional suffering”.

“I blame myself for it,” she said.

“I believed I had done something to deserve it.”

The victim, who feels withdrawn and unsafe, said she had weakened trust in men.

Defence Force Magistrate Group Captain Scott Geeves said he “won’t be blaming her for anyone”.

Brodie Reid pleaded guilty to indecent assault without consent. Facebook.

“(These) are words from a brave and mature young woman,” Group Captain Geeves said.

Navy prosecutor Commander Micheal Paes submitted the “brazenness” in how Reid “violated” his colleague aggravated the offending.

“It’s a remarkable indictment … (which) needs to be condemned in the strongest of measures,” Commander Paes said.

“(It’s an) aggravating factor that this occurred in such a benign setting … there was a certain nonchalance to his conduct … he has not apologised.”

Commander Paes said training Reid received including how to act appropriately in the workplace would’ve been “fresh in his mind”.

“It’s difficult to see how he could be trusted (in tight work spaces with female colleagues),” Commander Paes said.

The court was told Reid could have faced a maximum seven years in prison if the matter had been taken to a civilian court but he now faces only a maximum six months jail term due to the matter being heard in the military jurisdiction.

Reid, who appeared out of uniform, has been suspended with full pay since shortly after the offending.

The court heard the victim elected to have the matter dealt with by the military.

“(Reid) has been retained up to this point so he can be sentenced in this forum,” Commander Paes said.

Defending officer Lieutenant Raphael De Vietri said Reid had “impaired judgment” and was suffering with several “stressors” at the time.

It was submitted Reid was depressed because another female navy member who gave birth to his child had terminated their relationship.

The court heard Reid was also stressed because there was a possibility he would be dismissed from the navy on medical grounds.

“The storm was brewing,” Lieutenant De Vietri said.

The court was told Reid grew up in Brisbane where he attended Redcliffe State High School. Reid returned home to Redcliffe – where he currently lives – after he was suspended by the Navy.

The defence accepted Reid’s offending was brazen.

“It couldn’t be described in any other way,” Lieutenant De Vietri said.

“It’s utterly bizarre, it’s in explicable … it reads as an opportunistic event which occurred out of the blue.”

“There was a degree of persistence which concerns me,” Group Captain Geeves said.

Group Captain Geeves all but ruled out military detention for Reid instead indicating the fiend was “at risk” of doing time in a civilian prison.

Reid, who remains suspended with pay, will face court again at a later date.

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