Army Major fined £2,500 for sexually assaulting a woman with a grape

Major Colin Morris approached the woman, who was working as a cleaner, and said: "I've got something for you", before popping the grape into his mouth.

Morris, who has been married for 22 years, then grabbed her, pulled her body close to his and tried to force the fruit into her mouth, a court martial heard.

But, with eyes closed and teeth clenched, she resisted his advances and the grape fell on to the floor.

The tearful woman then complained to a colleague.

Morris, 44, told the court he got no sexual pleasure from the incident and maintained that the woman had played along with his antics, "laughing and giggling".

But at the end of the four-day trial a board of five high-ranking officers disagreed and found him guilty of sexual assault.

He was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay the woman £2,000 in compensation.

The court martial cleared him of another charge of sexual assault, where he was accused of emerging from his room wearing only a towel and patting the same woman on the bottom.

He said he would never have flouted mess rules by leaving his room in a state of undress, adding: "Whenever I left my room I wore a dressing gown."

Morris was serving in the Adjutant General's Corps and was attached to 43 Wessex Brigade as an administrator when he assaulted the civilian worker at Bulford Camp, near Salisbury, Wiltshire.

At the time, the major was living in single accommodation in the officers' mess.

The court at Bulford Camp heard that when Morris first met the woman he told her: "I bet I can embarrass you before I leave the mess."

Prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Charles Bullough said Morris later approached her from behind and grabbed her shoulder as she was polishing a table in the mess foyer.

He added: "He said, 'I've got something for you', and he had a grape in his fingers and he moved it towards her mouth.

"At the last second he then put it between his own lips and set to press his lips against her mouth.

"He succeeded in doing this and was pulling her tightly towards him with his hands and she was trying to resist.

"She closed her eyes and her teeth so nothing could be forced into her mouth.

"At that point, she saw another member of the mess staff walking across the foyer.

"The major then said, 'I told you I would make you go red' - he was grinning and seemed pleased with himself.

"She said she felt sick and her voice and legs were shaking."

Colonel Bullough said the woman told a female colleague that Morris had tried to kiss her and burst into tears.

Morris told the hearing his lips never made contact with the woman's and the grape fell to the floor after it had spent ten seconds wedged against her teeth.

The officer admitted it was inappropriate conduct, adding: "In hindsight I wish we had never met."

He admitted that on another occasion he had used sexually suggestive terms when he asked the woman to come into his room.

He added: "It was in a very jovial tone - I hoped this would make her go red."

Morris, who has since left the regular army and is now in the Territorials as part of the 6th Army Air Corps, was also given a severe reprimand and ordered to pay £500 costs.

Judge Advocate Jack Bayliss earlier ordered Morris to be acquitted of two charges relating to allegations he sexually assaulted a young waitress, once by kissing her on the cheek and once by stroking her thigh.