Appearing before Belfast Crown Court, Neil Beckett denies all the charges against him.
A former Army cadet leader accused of 29 sex offences against teenage girls “poked” and “grabbed” a young cadet, while asking “are you ticklish?" a court has heard.
Among the string of charges against Neil Beckett, of Kilmore near Crossgar, County Down, is an allegation of rape by another, separate cadet.A number of years after those alleged offences, Mr Beckett took up a job as health and welfare officer at Lagan College in south Belfast. "Eventually he stopped, but it took a while for him to stop. Constantly poking or nipping, grabbing at my sides. I just did not know what to do.”She described a separate incident during the same training session, when she was practising a manoeuvre on the ground, in which she had to lie flat on her stomach with her legs outstretched.
“After the tickling, I felt really awkward and vulnerable in that position because I was lying on my front," she said.The complainant described a number of other incidents in which she said Mr Beckett brought her into his office and gave her “firm” and “strong” hugs.On one occasion he put his hand on her shoulder, but “it was closer to my chest than it was my shoulder”.Describing the first time he hugged her, she said: “It wasn’t like a reassuring hug, it was more like a bear hug.
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