Allan Grimson, a former Royal Navy petty officer already serving a life sentence for the murders of Nicholas Wright and Sion Jenkins in 2001, is now on trial at Winchester Crown Court for a series of sexual offences against four males, including a 14-year-old boy from the North East. The charges include rape and indecent assault dating between February 1994 and November 1999.
Prosecution details allegations
John Price KC, prosecuting, told the jury that Grimson, now 66, provided details of some alleged offences during a 1999 police interview about the Wright murder case. He faces charges of indecent assault against the first victim in 1994 and the second in 1998. The third complainant, a naval rating, was allegedly raped and indecently assaulted five times in 1999. The fourth complainant, a teenage boy from the North East, was indecently assaulted and allegedly photographed indecently.
Price said Grimson, in his late 30s at the time, worked as an instructor at the Royal Navy Firefighting School on Horsea Island, Portsmouth. “He was a big powerful man and, within the service, admired as a capable instructor,” Price said. “That posting brought Mr Grimson into contact with many young males aged in their late teens, novices in the naval service subject to a regime of strict discipline and over every one of whom Allan Grimson exercised great authority by reason of his status in that service.”
Grimson’s admissions to police
According to the prosecution, during the December 1999 interview, Grimson described indecently assaulting the boy from the North East and said the boy asked him to stop, which made him angry. “He said if others had not known that (the boy) was there with him, he would probably have killed him. He said the anger had left him as quickly as it had come on, once he realised he couldn’t kill (the boy),” Price said.
The boy initially denied any assault when interviewed at school, but after Grimson was sentenced to life for murder, he contacted police and gave new interviews. When asked why he changed his account, the boy said: “Cause I safe.”
Context of Grimson’s murders
Price urged the jury to consider Grimson’s murder convictions when evaluating his alleged comments about killing the boy. “If anybody was ever tempted to suppose that Allan Grimson was exaggerating for effect when he spoke of considering the killing when the boy protested, they would need to re-evaluate that once knowing that Allan Grimson pleaded guilty to murdering those two men,” Price said. The murders occurred in Grimson’s flat at 143A London Road, where he invited the victims. Price added that Grimson told police of his “frustration” that the second complainant “left the flat alive”.
The prosecutor also revealed that Grimson told the third complainant that a baseball bat in his flat was his “pride and joy”, and admitted to using it to kill the two men. Grimson, of Hollesley, Suffolk, denies all charges. The trial continues.
