'Cancer' of HMS Dauntless with 'bisexual tendencies' guilty of sexually assaulting male and female sailors
.jpg?width=96&crop=1:1,smart)
An “intimidating” female sailor has been found guilty of a string of six sexual assaults against her male and female shipmates.
Able Seaman Sian Dowsett, 25, was said to be a “cancer on the ship” after she groped four of her Royal Navy colleagues - two men and two women. Assigned on the Portsmouth-based Type 45 destroyer HMS Dauntless, AB Dowsett grabbed the male sailors by their crotch, stroking their arms, and making comments such as “I like my coffee how I like my men, big and strong”.
The sailor, who has “bisexual tendencies”, also smacked women sailors' bums and squeezed their breasts, saying ”do you like that baby girl?” At a court martial at Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire, AB Dowsett was described as taking advantage of new female members of the ship and males who she thought would not report her.
Prosecutors said her offences “ranged from nipple pinching to bottom slapping and genital grabbing”. AB Dowsett was found guilty of six of the seven charges of sexual assault against her. She described herself in a service police interview as “heterosexual,” but she said that in the past she had “bisexual tendencies”. The incidents took place across 2023 and 2024.
Closing the trial, Graham Coombes said: "You may think that the clear picture of the accused had been a strong, confident, intimidating personality, who strolled around the ship sexually assaulting those she took a fancy to. In terms of the females, she would attach herself to new members of the ship. With males, she would pick out those who she did not think would complain and push them until she was warned off or she would pick people who didn’t feel they could complain.”
He said her actions formed a “pattern” and her assaults were similar, featuring bum slapping and nipple pinching. Mr Coombes added that despite her attempt to label her victims as conspirators, it was unlikely that all 10 of the witnesses involved in the trial were making up false allegations.
He said: "There are four complainants. 10 witnesses all conspiring against the accused, with no real motive other than saying she was loud and opinionated. These are serious allegations, they are not trivial allegations. Would they really do that?” AB Dowsett had told a male colleague's girlfriend before he left that she would ”look after him” and his girlfriend had warned him to be ”careful” around her.
The court heard that two weeks into the deployment, she had slapped the bottom of an Able Seaman in the galley as he was leaning over to write a list, leaving him “stunned”. He did not report the incident because he said that it was “a long deployment” and he did not want to make a bad environment early on.
He said that he did not think that the case would go very far if he did report it, and the chain of command would not take him seriously. A week later, AB Dowsett slapped his bottom again in the galley in front of another sailor. He later snapped at her that he would report her if she ever “slapped him on the arse again”.
In his police interview, he said: "It is just disrespectful. A lack of respect really. I wouldn’t do that at all and the fact that she has done that three times is just ridiculous. Unfortunately, she is a bit of a cancer on the ship. She has affected the ship very negatively. She has definitely hindered me and my girlfriend’s relationship."
When asked why he decided to report the incidents, he said: "It is just going to get worse. She is just going to go to another ship and do it again. It is just going to get worse before it gets better.” AB Dowsett later grabbed the boobs of a petty officer on HMS Dauntless and “caressed her nipple” between her thumb and finger, while saying “do you like that baby girl?”
Mr Coombes said: "Whilst she was naked and getting changed, the accused grabbed her breasts and pushed them up. She caressed her nipple and rubbed it between her fingers, while saying, 'do you like that baby girl?' This was both unwanted, and she felt that it was sexual in nature."
The Petty Officer said that they were getting ready for a night out, and she had walked between her cabin and a friend's without a top on because she was getting changed. She said she had ”cupped” her boobs and “caressed her nipple” in a sexual way that made her feel “uncomfortable”. The Petty Officer said she was surprised because she was not friends with AB Dowsett.
She said that she had known her to be bisexual and had thought that she was trying to ask if her holding her nipple “turned her on”. On a separate occasion, AB Dowsett had told a male Leading Hand “I like my coffee how I like my men, big and strong”. Then, when they were taking a lesson together, she had stroked his arm, saying he had “lovely skin”.
AB Dowsett then “pinched his left nipple” on and off for around half an hour, while keeping eye contact with him. The sailor had been approached by AB Dowsett after they had returned from deployment and she grabbed his “penis and balls in her hands”.
In another incident, Mr Coombes said that AB Dowsett had “slapped the bottom” of a female Able Seaman, who had only joined the ship three days prior, while she was lying on her bed. He said: “She slapped her bottom using a lot of force. She will say the accused stopped and said “you have really nice bottom to smack”. She then did it two or three more times. She smacked it with such force that she caused her bottom to sting."
AB Dowsett will be sentenced at a later date.