An Army recruitment sergeant who served with the Special Forces in Iraq denied sexually attacking 11 female cadets saying it "never happened" and told a court the Army was his "life".
Edwin Mee, 46, is said to have abused his position of trust and power to abuse or rape 11 alleged victims while working at an Army careers centre in Croydon, south east London.
Known as Jock, the Scottish officer allegedly carried out the attacks on women aged from 15 to their early twenties between October 2010 and September 2011.
Taking to the witness box to give evidence at London's Southwark Crown Court, Mee told jurors about his military career, and firmly denied the allegations.
He sat straight in the witness box and spoke in a Glaswegian accent, often saying "yes, ma'am", and responding "Aye, sir", when questioned by Judge Alistair McCreath.
Lisa Wilding QC, defending, asked her client: "The allegations against you are that in respect of two complainants, that you raped them, and in respect of the others that you touched them sexually, what do you say generally about those allegations?"
Mee replied: "That never happened ma'am."
He explained that his father had been an engineer in the Royal Navy, his mum an Army nurse, and that his step-brothers had also been in the Army.
Mee joined the army aged 24, and went on to serve tours of duty in Iraq - where he was attached to the Special Forces, Afghanistan - where he was attached to a parachute regiment, and Bosnia, jurors heard.
By the time the allegations against him came to light he had acquired the rank of sergeant, and he was suspended in 2011.
The court was told that Mee was medically discharged from the Army in April 2014.
Lisa Wilding QC, defending Mee, asked him how he felt about his time in the Army.
He replied: "Everyone knows how I feel about the Army. My family served in it - the Army was my life, and if it wasn't for all this mess, I would still be there."
When arrested, Mee gave a prepared statement to police denying the allegations against him.
Referring to one of the rape allegations, he said: "I have never raped any person in my life."
He went on to deny each of the sexual assault allegations saying "I did not sexually assault any person", when talking about each individual incident.
Mee, of Tavistock Road, Croydon, south London - who was dressed in a dark suit with light blue shirt and dark blue tie and with his grey hair tied back in a ponytail - denies 17 counts of sexual assault, three rapes and one count of assault by penetration.
The trial continues.
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