ROYAL NAVY OFFICER SCOTT EWING CONVICTED OF VOYEURISM IN DARTMOUTH

A Royal Navy officer has been found guilty of secretly recording himself engaging in sex with an attractive female officer and sharing the footage on Snapchat to boast to colleagues who had previously claimed she was 'out of his league'. Sub Lieutenant Scott Ewing testified at a court martial that he used his phone to film the act, explaining he was 'proving to the guys that something happened... I was fluffing my feathers,' and that it made him 'feel like a lad' at the time. The 11-second video showed SLt Ewing smiling at the camera and making an 'ok' gesture with his fingers while having sex with the woman, who faced away from him.

The female officer described her horror upon discovering he had 'massively breached [her] trust' by recording her without consent and posting the video to an all-male Snapchat group. Ewing, stationed at the prestigious Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC) in Dartmouth, asserted that during the sexual encounter he told her 'the lads have got to see this,' to which she responded 'do whatever you need.' However, this account was rejected by the court at Bulford Military Court, where Ewing was convicted of voyeurism.

The two-day trial revealed that Ewing, who expressed that he initially found the woman attractive and that they later exchanged flirtatious messages and semi-naked pictures on Facebook, also admitted that they met at a bar near Dartmouth — the UK's naval academy attended by Prince Charles, Prince Philip, and Prince William. Ewing claimed she had previously hinted they would have sex the next time they met, implying consent when she asked if they should go to his room. On the walk there, he recounted repeatedly saying, 'I can't believe this, the lads aren't going to believe this.'

During the sexual act, Ewing stated he told her 'the lads have got to see this,' and she responded 'do whatever you need.' He interpreted her response as consent, saying, 'I took that to mean 'show them'... I got the impression that was consent.' He then turned the camera onto his face, pulled a facial expression, stuck out his tongue, smiled, and gestured with his hand in what he thought was a 'perfect' sign. 'It was proving to the guys that something happened... I was fluffing my feathers, showing off,' he explained. 'Looking back, it seems silly and immature but in that moment I just wanted to prove a point.' He described his motivation as wanting to appear as 'a lad,' to show off, and to impress his friends, saying, '[They said] fair play, he did it, well done.' He added, 'At the time it made me feel like a lad. It made me feel cool, made me feel like I did something that the others thought was admirable.'

Ewing also mentioned that his friends in the Snapchat group had previously joked about him being a 'catfish' — someone who looks better online than in person — and believed he had 'no chance' with the female officer because she was 'out of his league.'

Prosecutor Lieutenant Commander Peter Barker argued that Ewing's facial gestures instead of words showed he didn't want her to know what was happening. Barker pointed out that she was facing away and with her head down, and that Ewing was doing everything possible to avoid her awareness, emphasizing that she said there was 'absolutely no consent.' The officer described the recording as a 'spur of the moment, immature prank that went wrong.'

Asked how she would have reacted if she had known the sex was being recorded or shared, she said, 'I never saw him holding a phone. He never mentioned recording having sex.' She added, 'I would have got myself out of there as quickly as possible. That would not have been acceptable. That was never part of the deal.' She also stated that she believed she would have been angry and quickly exited if she had known about any recording, and noted that even more so if she had known it would be shared.

After the encounter, she dressed and prepared to leave, and observed Ewing pick up his phone but did not find it suspicious at the time. She recalled asking him, 'you aren't going to tell anybody about this, are you?' and said he just laughed or smirked. About two and a half weeks later, a friend called her about a video of her she had seen. She spoke with another man in the Snapchat group who had viewed it, who assured her her face wasn't in it, which she found a relief. However, she explained she didn't want to speak with Ewing because 'he had massively breached my trust.'

When she learned of the video, she was "absolutely shocked." Ewing, who is now assigned to HMS Collingwood in Fareham, Hampshire, will face sentencing at a later date.