Sailor pleads guilty to indecent assault at HMAS Cerberus base

A sailor says he was so drunk he can’t remember climbing into another man’s bed before molesting him at a Victorian naval base.

Seaman Nathan Cameron has pleaded guilty to committing an act of indecency without consent.

A naval Seaman guzzled an “extraordinary level of alcohol” before climbing into another man’s bed in the early hours of the morning, spooning him, and putting his hands inside his underwear, a court has heard.

Seaman Nathan Cameron, 27, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to committing an act of indecency without consent at a Defence Force Magistrates Court hearing at HMAS Cerberus naval base.

The court heard Cameron, a former Beaurepaires manager from the Sunshine Coast, had no memory of the night he molested his mate and quit drinking after concluding he had a “problematic relationship with alcohol”.

Cameron, supported in court by his parents Rodney and Margaret, appeared visibly relieved when Defence Force Magistrate Commander Gregory Sirtes, SC, said he would not be sending him away for a stint of notoriously tough military detention.

The sexual assault happened at the HMAS Cerberus naval base at Crib Point.

He said Cameron’s offending was the “lowest level” of sexual indecency, but that his victim would have felt violated when he woke, at 4am, in his own room, to Cameron “spooned” him, with his hand inside his underwear, resting on his buttocks.

When confronted, Cameron told his victim he thought he was in his own room, before leaving.

He then told investigators he had no memory of the night.

Cameron was not dismissed from the Defence Force, with Commander Sirtes saying the sailor had long aspired to a naval career, only to be told in his early 20s to “go away and get more life experience”.

Cameron’s superiors gave him glowing character references, said he had all the makings of an outstanding sailor, despite the “mistake” of committing a sex offence.

“This should be the first, and hopefully the last, appearance by you in a service tribunal,” Commander Sirtes said.

Seaman Nathan Cameron pleaded guilty to committing an act of indecency without consent. Picture: Nathan Dyer

He said Cameron took “no sexual gratification” from his offending, but rejected a suggestion that, drunk and confused, he might have ended up in his victim’s room because of the “confusing” and monotonous interior design of the base’s sleeping quarters.

The court heard it was common for sailors to leave their bedroom doors unlocked while sleeping on base, and that sailors needed to trust each other because they could bunk in close quarters with little privacy while deployed at sea.

Since his offending, Cameron has been posted to a base outside Canberra and has settled into a steady relationship with his supportive girlfriend.

Cameron had been in the navy just over a year at the time of his offending, so could not be punished by demotion.

Cameron’s Defence lawyer, Major Dan Coombes said Cameron’s offending was “fairly straight forward” and “what might be called an out of the blue incident”.

Commander Sirtes fined two weeks pay, and issued him a formal reprimand.