ARMY CHEF JAILED FOR RAPING GIRL IN A TENT
An Army chef based in Colchester has been jailed for raping a teenage girl.Vila Woods, 30, of Merville Barracks, was convicted of raping the 17-year-old girl in a tent at a medieval re-enactment weekend at Ragley Hall, in south Warwickshire.
Woods admitted the charge and was sentenced to three years in prison at Warwick Crown Court.
He is set to be discharged from the Army and will be a registered sex offender for life.
The court heard that Woods attended the re-enactment event during his time off from work at Colchester Garrison in August of the previous year.
The victim and her boyfriend had given Woods permission to share the tent on the second night.
The boyfriend was asleep after taking a sleeping tablet, and Woods assaulted the girl.
She woke to find Woods raping her, tried to alert her boyfriend and typed what had happened on her phone.
Woods stopped, left the tent, and later the event.
Woods was arrested in Colchester and initially claimed the sex was consensual before later admitting to rape.
The judge, Richard Griffith-Jones, stated that Woods's approach to the victim was unjustified and described the incident as a 'very distressing invasion of her intimacy.' The Ministry of Defence announced that an application would be made for Woods’s discharge from the Army.
