Royal Navy Petty Officer on HMS Queen Elizabeth squeezes two sailors' bottoms as "sordid actions" cost him career
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An experienced Royal Navy sailor has been dismissed after he groped his female colleague on board an aircraft carrier while she was stood next to her boyfriend - while also molesting another female.
Petty Officer Daniel Triffitt, 36, grabbed the female sailor's bottom while she was chatting to her partner and said “Why are you with him”? Later the same evening on HMS Queen Elizabeth, he molested another junior colleague by squeezing her bottom.
PO Triffitt's “sordid actions” while the aircraft carrier was docked in Hamburg, Germany, were a contributing factor to one of the victims leaving the military and caused another “severe anxiety”. The sailor, with 19 years of experience, has now been kicked out of the Royal Navy after admitting two counts of disgraceful conduct. One of the victims was 19, and the other aged 24, at the time of the assaults.
Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire heard PO Triffitt had been on a night out in Hamburg and returned to the 65,000 tonne warship and carried on drinking at a bar. It was heard that he had been drinking since 11:30am and had carried on with Jägerbombs and other alcohol. When he was in the academy bar, he walked up to one of the victims and put his arm “below her waist” while she was talking to her boyfriend. He then said, “why are you with him?”, and people around them had to intervene to push him away from the victim.
On a second occasion in the same evening, PO Triffitt went up to a leading hand and sat next to her. He recognised the woman but did not directly know her. When she turned away to speak to someone else, he then put his hand on her waist and “tried to pull her closer”. She told him “no” and tried to “push him off”, but he continued and “squeezed her bottom” while smiling at her. PO Triffitt was “heavily intoxicated” and when he got up to walk away, he stumbled and fell to the floor twice.
When he was questioned by the service police about the incident, he denied groping either of the women and said that if he touched them, it was “an accident”. Bulford Military Court heard he later pleaded guilty to the charges of disgraceful conduct by indecent touching. Prosecutor Major Sonny Lawson told the court that PO Triffitt had “no recollection” of the events but that he “accepted the victims and witnesses' accounts”.
Reading out a statement from the first victim, he said: "During the initial stages of the investigation, I had a partner at that time. He felt guilty about the incident and felt he should have intervened. This put a strain on the relationship. I have anxiety, so I would feel anxious on the days of the phone calls for interviews. I had many people asking me about the incident on board the ship, so I had to interact with people about it. During the first few weeks, I avoided going out, and I was uncomfortable going out with any work personnel. I was constantly thinking about what people were saying. Overall, this incident has had a significant effect on my anxiety, which is part of the reason of the reason why I was downgraded from HMS Queen Elizabeth."
In a statement from the second victim, he said: "Before the incident, I was a bubbly and confident person and enjoyed being surrounded by people. Now I struggle to go out with large groups and meet new people. The thought of people touching me makes me uncomfortable. I am always on edge when talking to the males at work. I barely drink alcohol. My friendships have been affected because I struggle to trust people. I struggle to have any physical or emotional intimacy. I often found myself crying without knowing why. I have now found that the military is not for me. I don’t want anyone to feel like I have done for the past year. This contributed to me deciding to leave the service.”
It was heard that PO Triffitt had eight previous convictions that were alcohol related. Mitigating, Kellie Enever said PO Triffitt had served in the military for 19 years and had been “making progress with his career”. Ms Enever said he had used alcohol as a “coping mechanism” after the passing of his father and said that he had also been through a divorce. She said he had “accepted what he had done” and knew that he had “let himself down”.
Speaking of the incident, she said: "He was so drunk that he fell twice to the floor, that is how drunk he was. So now you might appreciate his lack of memory from that night.” She said he realised the impact this incident had on the victims and, “the realisation that he has to leave the profession that he truly loves has hung over his head for a year”.
Assistant Judge Advocate General John Atwill described the acts as “demeaning”, and PO Triffitt carried out “sordid actions of a person in authority”. He added: “Your behaviour is legally and literally disgraceful. The age and rank differentials were significant. Your relationship with alcohol has brought you to this point. This has made you throw away your career in the Royal Navy. The least sentence we can award you is a community order.”
PO Triffitt has been dismissed from the force and was sentenced to a community service order of 18 months, with a total of 360 days of unpaid work in total. He was also ordered to complete an alcohol monitoring programme and 20 days of rehabilitation. A charge of £1500 was ordered, with £750 to be paid to each victim within three months.