A highly-decorated Main Common who was a pallbearer at Prince Philip’s funeral has been kicked out of the military for attempting to kiss a feminine colleague at a drunken karaoke evening.
James Roddis, a married father-of-three, was tipped as the long run head of the British Military earlier than he ‘inappropriately’ performed with the hair of the feminine RAF officer then gave her a ‘fully uninvited’ kiss on the lips.
The 53-year-old, from Aberdour, Fife, was formally dismissed from the armed forces by a court docket martial board yesterday after admitting disgraceful conduct of an indecent sort throughout a deployment to Japan.
He was sentenced to 6 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 2 years, ordered to finish 30 days of rehabilitation and 150 hours unpaid work and pay his sufferer £2,500 compensation.
James Roddis ‘inappropriately’ performed with the hair of the feminine RAF officer earlier than giving her an ‘uninvited’ kiss
Choose Advocate Common Alan Giant advised him: ‘The kiss and touching of the sufferer was clearly an indecent act and your conduct was persistent, to a level.
‘This was an escalating course of indecent conduct and whenever you grabbed her face and kissed her you supposed to just do that.’
The listening to in Bulford, Wiltshire, marked the official finish of Roddis’s glittering 29-year military profession.
Roddis had obtained the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), the UK’s highest award for management in fight, two Queen’s commendations and a Point out in Dispatches after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In 2014, he was commanding officer of The Highlanders – troops from the 4th Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland – who have been then the final Scottish battalion to serve in a fight function in Afghanistan.
However his profession resulted in shame when he turned solely the second officer of his rank to face a court docket martial since 1815.
Yesterday’s listening to was advised that Roddis and his sufferer have been a part of a six-strong group who went out once they have been off responsibility on the final evening of the journey to Japan.
They went to a BBQ restaurant and took part in a two-hour Japanese custom often called Nomihodai, which suggests ‘all you may drink’, earlier than persevering with the revelry at a karaoke bar.
Movies from the evening confirmed the service personnel ingesting from a champagne tower and Roddis singing a drunken duet of The Killers’ hit Mr Brightside with a colleague.
Prosecutor Graham Coombes stated a ‘substantial amount of alcohol was consumed’.
He stated: ‘By the point the group headed to the karaoke bar, the complainant accepted that she was drunk and it turned obvious that the accused was drunk.’
Roddis turned his consideration to his sufferer – who can’t be named for authorized causes – whereas they sat in a sales space on the bar and he started tugging at her ponytail.
The feminine RAF officer stated she turned ‘very conscious of the rank distinction’ and tried to inform the ex-Maj Gen to cease.
Roddis, who was a pallbearer at Prince Philip’s funeral, had been tipped as the long run head of the British Military
A part of the incident was caught on movie, and Mr Coombes stated: ‘He begins to the touch and inappropriately contact and play together with her hair and contact her ponytail earlier than placing his arm round her.
‘She turns to the accused and asks him to cease. She turns in direction of him and raises her finger interesting to him to cease. She says she didn’t know what else to do to cease him touching her hair.
‘The accused continues to the touch her and pulls the bobble out inflicting her hair to roll down and he says to her that “her hair appears to be like higher down”.
‘You may see her elevate her eyes and point out her displeasure.’
Roddis then grasped her chin and kissed her, which was not filmed however which Mr Coombes stated was ‘fully uninvited and with out warning’.
He added: ‘Shortly afterwards, because of what the accused had completed, she left the bar with one other member of the group.
‘She says she felt actually indignant and was upset about what had occurred.’
The court docket martial heard she texted her husband saying: ‘Simply since you’re a two-star normal, it doesn’t imply you get to the touch me.’
On the flight dwelling the subsequent day, the feminine officer advised Roddis that ‘there was some issues that you simply did final evening that I deem unacceptable’.
He advised her: ‘I have to resign.’
Summarising the annoying elements of the case, the prosecutor stated: ‘The sufferer was finishing up her duties.
‘She attended the social occasion as a part of her duties and was anticipated to attend the ultimate evening.
‘The defendant was able of duty and belief. The offences happened in public.’
Roddis had initially been accused of sexual assault following the incident in April however admitted a lesser cost at a listening to in July.
He was required to resign from the military in Could.
The court docket martial heard it was the second comparable incident involving Roddis’s conduct for which he obtained a punishment of lack of seniority.
Two feminine civil servants had lodged complaints about his conduct following an incident, once more abroad, in 2023 the place he had requested ‘questions of a sexual nature’ and ‘touched one of many females that made her really feel uncomfortable’.
In a sufferer influence assertion, the complainant stated she ‘did the precise factor’ in reporting Roddis.
‘My primary concern is how powerless I used to be that evening. It has left me feeling susceptible,’ she added.
Jane Bickerstaff KC, defending, stated Roddis had just lately been recognized with alcohol dependency.
‘He has been via a proper disciplinary course of and his fee has been revoked,” she stated.
‘He isn’t allowed to check with himself as having been a serious normal within the Military.
‘This conduct going down over a couple of minutes has resulted within the lack of a profession that he spent 30 years constructing – a distinguished profession wherein he has obtained a lot of citations.
‘You’ll admire that he has misplaced not solely his profession however the future potential prospects of that profession.
‘When one appreciates, as James Roddis does, that one solely has one’s self responsible, it’s a bitter capsule to swallow.’
