Darwin soldier sacked for groping sleeping colleague’s genitals in taxi

A DARWIN soldier convicted of groping a sleeping subordinate’s genitals under his underwear after a night out while on leave will spend no more than 20 days in jail

Alexander Edwards, 30, will be sacked from his post as a bombardier in the Australian Army after he was found guilty of groping a subordinate’s genitals

A DARWIN soldier convicted of groping a sleeping subordinate’s genitals under his underwear after a night out while on leave will spend no more than 20 days in jail.

Alexander Edwards, 30, will also be sacked from his post as a bombardier in the Australian Army after he was found guilty in the Defence Force Magistrates Court on Friday.

The court heard Edwards was returning to base in a taxi after a night of drinking while on leave in Adelaide last year when he reached inside the junior soldier’s underwear and fondled his genitals.

The other soldier told the court on arriving at the barracks he woke to find Edwards “gripping” his penis and “told him immediately to get off”.

In sentencing Edwards to a dishonourable discharge, Brigadier Michael Cowan said the assault was made more serious as it was “on a vulnerable member of a lower rank”.

“This was an intentional act of touching the man’s penis while he was sleeping or semiconscious,” he said.

“He was unable to resist this advance and the touching of his penis and the defendant was aware of that.”

The hearing was the second time the matter had come before the tribunal after a retrial was ordered due to errors in the first proceeding in which Edwards was handed a 30-day jail sentence.

He served 20 days of that sentence before returning to court and Brigadier Cowan ruled it would be inappropriate to send him back to jail under the circumstances.

Edwards’ counsel, Lieutenant Colonel Tom Berkley, had argued for his client to be dealt with via a reduction in rank, but Brigadier Cowan said the nature of the offence meant he was “no longer able to render effective service in the Australian Defence Force”.

Brigadier Cowan acknowledged Edwards’ prior good character but said the offending was “wholly inconsistent” with the ADF’s cultural reform agenda.

“I’m satisfied he was, up to this point, a hitherto worthwhile member of the ADF,” he said.

“This is just such a serious offence that I have formed the view that the defendant cannot be allowed to continue to serve in the ADF because of it.”

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Under military procedures, Edwards will be suspended without pay while the ruling is reviewed before his dismissal is finalised.

A second charge of prejudicial conduct was dismissed due to a lack of evidence.