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| Bum Slap: Forsyth |
A military consultant touched the bum’s of two young women while drinking at a Royal Navy charity event at Whitehall’s Admiralty House, a court heard today.
Mark Forsyth, 58, admits consuming beer and wine at the fundraiser for the National Museum of the Royal Navy, where he groped the rear of a waitress and slapped an organiser, the jury were told.
Southwark Crown Court heard there was no further action regarding the waitress, but the second woman told the trial: “I turned and felt a large hit on my left buttock.
“I turned and looked at him in shock and said: ‘What are you doing?’ and his business friend said: ‘What the f*** are you doing? You can’t keep doing this.’
“Mr. Forsyth laughed and lit up a cigarette outside and then tried to come back in, but his friend took him away.”
Forsyth, of Millennium Close, Frampton Cotterell, Coalpit Heath, Bristol - boss of MRDFORSYTH Consulting Limited - has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the woman on February 18, last year at the landmark Grade 1 listed building.
Prosecutor Mr. Paul Casey said: “It seems he did something similar earlier on when he touched the backside of a waitress and his friend told him he couldn’t behave like that.
“He did something foolish in drink once and went and did it again.”
It was a catered event with alcohol and canapés served to approximately fifty potential donors, who included ex-forces man Forsyth himself and a speech was given by the museum’s Director General.
Earlier in the evening he chatted with the complainant. “He asked if I was ex-military and when I said I was ex-Navy he said I was the prettiest female Marine bandswoman he had seen.
“I just laughed it off. He was friendly and not aggressive and made a couple of jokes.
“He came up to me and said how much he enjoyed the evening and how he was potentially going to give some money to the museum.”
When Forsyth spotted the unclaimed name tags of non-attenders he asked her: “Who could I have been tonight?”
She replied: “You could have come as the Indian High Commissioner,” the court heard.
Seconds later she felt the slap, which Forsyth doesn’t deny. “His business partner came and grabbed him and Mr. Forsyth said: ‘It’s fine, she’s ex-forces. It’s banter.’
“In my six years in the military and as a reservist in the Army I have never had anything like that,” said the woman, aged in her twenties. “The fact I was ex-forces is invalid.
“It was such a force and it did sting afterwards, he had no right to touch me. It was wrong that a man of his age thought it was okay to hit a young woman if he felt like it.
“I was in shock after that, I felt it was completely unjustified.”
The jury was shown CCTV footage of Forsyth dancing around with his arms in the air immediately after the incident and hugging the woman.
She reported him to the police five days later.
On his professional profile Forsyth describes himself as an experienced Defence and Business consultant seeking new challenges.
He was an electronics engineer for twenty-four years, specialising in tanks with the Army Technical Support Agency.
He has worked on projects here in the UK, plus Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Singapore.
Forsyth previously worked as a specialist for the Australian Defence Forces and the New Zealand Defence Force in their delivery of heavy recovery military vehicles.
He is a former parish councillor for Frampton Cotterell Parish Council and an ex-town councillor at Bradley Stoke.
Forsyth is a graduate of Worcester University, Farnborough College of Technology and the School of Electronic Engineering.
He currently resides in a four-bedroom £550,000 detached home.
Admiralty House is used for government functions and houses ministerial apartments.
It backs onto Horse Guards Parade and was once home to Winston Churchill while serving as First Lord of the Admiralty
John Prescott had a grace-and-favour flat in the building when he was Deputy PM and it has been home to several Prime Ministers during 10 Downing Street renovations.
Trial continues…………
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