4 British sailors charged in gang rape of woman were typical tourists on social media
CBC News has uncovered more details about four British Navy sailors accused of sexually assaulting a woman while visiting Halifax.
The four men range in age from 23 to 35 years old and all of them serve in the British Royal Navy. One of them has a girlfriend while another has been married for four years.
The men have been charged with sexual assault causing bodily harm and group sexual assault after an alleged incident last week.
The major crime unit of the Canadian military police says on April 10 the four were in the barracks at CFB Shearwater just east of Halifax and gang-raped a civilian woman.
The British sailors were here in Halifax to play in a hockey tournament against Canadian teams.
Their social media posts show them doing fairly average things when they got here, visiting different parts of the city and remarking about the weather.
CBC has confirmed that on the day of the alleged incident, the team played at 8 a.m. local time against the Canadian Fleet Diving Unit and at 2 p.m. against the Shearwater Over 45 team.
It was sometime after that game that the four British sailors allegedly sexually assaulted the woman in the base barracks.
The team's Facebook page was taken down immediately after news broke about the alleged assault and at least one of the sailor's pages, Darren Smalley's, has been taken down.
As for the British Navy, it says it will co-operate with Canadian authorities who have jurisdiction prosecuting the case.
In a release Friday, a spokesperson said the navy "takes allegations of this nature very seriously, however as legal proceedings continue it would be inappropriate to comment further."
The accused are:
- Craig Stoner, 24, of Stonehouse.
- Darren Smalley, 35, of Gosport.
- Joshua Finbow, 23, of Stockbridge.
- Simon Radford, 31, of Lower Gosport.
The four are spending the weekend in jail, awaiting their next court appearance on Monday. At that time, they'll go before a judge for a show-cause hearing to determine whether they're going to receive bail and if so, the conditions of that bail.
