Married Army Sergeant who raped a colleague after drinking at barracks mini-festival faces jail as he is convicted

A married Army Sergeant faces jail after he raped a colleague on an army base after binge drinking all day and night at a barracks mini festival party called ‘Camp Messtival’.

Sgt Michael Ball, a 37-year-old father of two, spent the day and evening at the event – a parody of the well known Camp Bestival – at Dalton Barracks in Abingdon before heading to an after-party in the junior officers’ mess, something that was strictly forbidden.

The Military Court, sitting in Catterick, found Ball guilty of rape and sexual assault this afternoon.

He was bailed so that he could get his domestic affairs in order but was warned he faces a prison term when sentenced.

Judge Edward Legard told Ball: ‘You have now been convicted of a sexual offence and no doubt you will lose your job.’

Married Army Sergeant Sgt Michael Ball, 37, faces jail after he raped a colleague on an army base

The Judge asked Sgt Ball, who could be heard sobbing, to ‘compose himself’ before releasing the disgraced officer on bail to reside at his family home where he lives with his wife and two children.

The Panel made of six officers, two females and four males took five and half hours to return the guilty verdicts.

During the weeklong hearing, the court heard how Sgt Ball – a decorated officer – had been very drunk when he targeted a female at the after party in July last year.

The Military Court, sitting in Catterick, found Ball guilty of rape and sexual assault this afternoon 

The complainant, who cannot be named, told the court how Ball ‘had been acting weird’ on the night of the attack.

While he had spent the afternoon and evening drinking she had been working and hadn’t attended the event and didn’t get back to the barracks until 3am.

When she did encounter Sgt Ball at this point, she said, the senior officer had been so drunk he had ‘been sick’ in front of her and other junior ranking officers at an impromptu party in her room.

The court heard that the Sgt had been so intoxicated he had been sent to ‘sleep it off’ in a room next door only to repeatedly emerge from the room to try and get back into the after party.

The court heard that in the early hours at around the time of the incident, another officer who had not attended the party had seen Ball outside the complainant’s room with his shirt off and banging on her door, apparently attempting to gain entry, after returning from the room where they had tried to get him to sleep.

Ball then ‘pretended’ to fall asleep in the complainant’s room and when the other attendees of the after party had all left, at around 9am, he got up and attempted to have sex with her against her will.

Breaking down in tears as she gave her evidence, the junior officer described how she had tried to protect herself from Ball and fought him off but that ‘he was twice my size’ so she had not been able to stop him.

She said she had telephoned her partner and then her mother immediately following the attack in distress.

The married father claimed he thought his victim had been interested in him sexually because she had previously signed a text message to him with an ‘X’ and that he ‘thought she had a crush on him’.

He said he had returned to the area around her room to look for the woman after he heard that Military Police were looking for him regarding an allegation of rape.

When questioned, Sgt Ball, 37, told the military panel that he had returned to the scene because he ‘panicked’ and was ‘afraid’.

A junior officer stationed on the door to protect the crime scene told the court how Sgt Ball was ‘angry and agitated’ and demanded to know where the complainant was before barging past him and entering the room to look for her.

Defending Ball, Matthew Bolt told the complainant that this was a case ‘of buyer remorse’.

The court heard Ball, from Ormskirk, Lancashire, is a ‘decorated officer’.

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