Royal Navy engineer, 23, denies sexually assaulting a male colleague telling court martial they are innocent because they are ‘demisexual’ and need a strong emotional bond first
- Able Seaman Triss Smythe denies sexual assault by non-consensual touching
- Demisexual people do not feel sexual attraction without deep emotional bond
- AB Smythe claims they could not have committed alleged crime due to sexuality
A Royal Navy engineer has denied sexually assaulting a male colleague and told a court martial they could not have done it because they are ‘demisexual’.
Able Seaman Triss Smythe is accused of ‘grinding’ against the bottom of the alleged victim and kissing his neck, making him feel ‘violated and humiliated’.
However, AB Smythe told the hearing they were innocent, as being demisexual means they need to form a strong emotional bond with anyone before they could even begin to think about sexual contact.
AB Smythe, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, claimed they struggled to even kiss their female fiancée passionately at first, ‘let alone a colleague’.
The 23-year-old insisted the way they wrapped their arms around the fellow sailor and kissed him in an aircraft hanger was purely ‘platonic’.
Able Seaman Triss Smythe (pictured) has denied sexually assaulting a fellow sailor, claiming he could not have done because he is demisexual. Demisexual is a term used to describe someone who does not feel sexual attraction until a deep emotional bond is formed
They also claimed at Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire that the colleague kissed them in a similar way just a week before the incident.
AB Smythe, who was known to use the phrase ‘I’m here and I’m queer’ around the workplace, denies one count of sexual assault of non-consensual touching and claims the kiss was simply a ‘peck’.
The court previously heard AB Smythe left the alleged victim feeling ‘violated and humiliated’ by putting their arms over his shoulders and ‘grinding’ up against him, before kissing him.
Both sailors had been wearing ‘paper thin’ summer overalls at the time and the claimant told the trial the kiss went on for ‘what felt like a lifetime’.
The military court heard AB Smythe, an Air Engineering Technician, ‘circled’ around the back of colleagues in a helicopter hanger at Royal Navy Air Station Yeovilton, Somerset.
However, giving evidence, AB Smythe said being demisexual meant the kiss could not have been of a sexual nature.
Demisexual is a term used to describe a person who feels no sexual attraction until they have formed a deep emotional connection with someone.
On their sexuality, AB Smythe told the court: ‘It’s not something I scream from the rooftops.
‘I’ve always understood how difficult [coming out] is to do. It is hard, I’ve had to do that myself.
‘I am demisexual – with emotional requirements. It is on the asexual spectrum.’
When challenged on the possibility that they was using their sexuality as a cover, the sailor replied: ‘I don’t use it as a cover.
‘The fact is I’m demisexual – sexual urge isn’t something that comes easily with my own fiancée, let alone a colleague.’
The court heard that AB Smythe had been ‘out’ as demisexual for ‘roughly two years’.
The trial is taking place at Bulford Military Court (pictured) in Wiltshire, where AB Smythe is standing accused of sexual assault by non-consensual touching
The defendant said that it took three months before they started feeling sexual towards their now-fiancée, adding: ‘I have nothing other than professional and platonic feeling for [the alleged victim].’
The seaman told the court that the claimant had spoken to him in a ‘very personal’ conversation the week before.
They said: ‘After the conversation, he came and threw his arms around me in a meaningful hug with a lot of emotion involved and very important that this hug happened.
‘He then went on to place a kiss on my cheek – how you would kiss a family member you care about.
‘Intense, emotional, platonic kiss.’
AB Smythe told the court he had not considered that kiss sexual either.
They said: ‘I very much viewed it as a friend expressing what they couldn’t quite do in words. I had no impression of a sexual subtext.’
However, the claimant said this event never took place.
On the alleged sexual assault, AB Smythe said: ‘I walked alongside the aircraft.
AB Smythe (pictured), 23, claimed the kiss he gave his colleague was ‘platonic’ and simply a ‘peck’
‘At this point, [the claimant] had clearly stopped working, I thought it’s a good time to quickly go over and say hi.
‘Because of the events of [the week before] I wanted him to know that that display of platonic affection was nothing for him to be worried about and hadn’t changed our relationship.
‘I came up behind him and threw my arms over his shoulders and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.’
AB Smythe denied taking his colleague in a tight grip, adding: ‘I gave him a quick peck on the cheek.’
When asked if it was slobbery, the engineer replied: ‘No, it was meant to be a very quick split second type of thing. I have no reason to lick him. I don’t find him sexually attractive.’
On the allegation that they pressed they penis up against the complainant’s bottom, AB Smythe said: ‘The closest thing to his centre line would have been my right hip.’
The 23-year-old added: ‘It wouldn’t have been able to be my penis, through overalls, personal clothing system (PCS) and my boxers, and the same on him – it’s a bit of a stretch in my opinion.’
The able seaman said the contact was ‘not in the slightest’ bit sexual and that he had ‘no reason to thrust into him’, insisting the kiss was ‘purely platonic, a between friends type of kiss’.
When told they had no right to kiss a colleague in the workplace like that, AB Smythe said: ‘I had the right to kiss him platonically in the same way he did to me.’
The trial continues.