A young female who claimed she was abused on numerous occasions by her Army Cadet leader has told a court of how he “poked” and “grabbed” her.
In an interview with police played at Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday, she described numerous incidents involving inappropriate tickling, hugging, kissing and groping.
Former Army Cadet leader Neil Beckett is standing trial on a total of 29 offences which the Crown say were committed between 2013 and 2023.
The 43-year old, from Kilmore Village, Downpatrick denies all the charges levelled against him which consist of one count of rape, one count of sexual communication with a child, one count of sexual grooming and 26 counts of sexual assault.
A total of 11 complainants claim they were sexually abused - two of whom were Army Cadets whilst he was their leader and nine of whom were pupils at Lagan College in Belfast whilst he occupied the position of the school’s school health and welfare officer.
The jury watched an interview conducted with a second Army Cadet who claims she was abused by Beckett multiple times in his office and once during a training exercise.
Recalling the first alleged incident, the then-teenager said she was upset about an incident in school and was called into Beckett’s office.
She said whilst he initially “re-assured” her, he put his hands on her shoulders and hugged her, claiming one of his hands was more on her chest.
She spoke of several similar incidents, including one when he hugged her and tried to kiss her cheek and described some of the hugs as “not something I could easily break out of”.
She claimed on one occasion he kissed her on the cheek.
The complainant also spoke of an alleged incident at a training exercise when Beckett asked ‘are you ticklish?’ and she said ‘no’, but he started “hugging and poking at me and grabbing my sides and I said to him ‘get off, get off”.
During the same training exercise, Beckett is alleged to have touched her leg as she lay prone.
When asked by the police officer if she challenged Beckett, she said she was initially “too scared” but later said to him: “I don’t think this is appropriate and I’m not comfortable with the way you hug me”.
“He said that he wouldn’t want an allegation like that to risk me moving forward and I wouldn’t be able to get promoted,” she said.
“I didn’t want to quit Cadets so I kept it quiet.
“I wanted to do Cadets as it was something I loved, but it was Neil who was making it hell.”
Despite Beckett’s warnings, she raised the issue with another senior leader as she knew he had “access” to other Cadets.
At hearing.