A MARRIED general who became the first special ops chief to be charged with sexual assault in military history has been given a suspended jail sentence today.
Major General James Roddis — a decorated war hero — has been sentenced to six months’ imprisonment suspended for two years by a court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire.
Former senior Army officer James Roddis[/caption]
It comes after he admitted a charge of disgraceful conduct of an indecent kind.
He drunkenly touched and tried to kiss a woman in a karaoke bar while leading an overseas military delegation.
Roddis, 53, who had been required to resign from the Army in May following a misconduct process, was also formally dismissed from the military by the court martial board.
The board also ordered Roddis, a married father-of-three, to complete 30 days of rehabilitation and 150 hours unpaid work and pay his victim £2,500 compensation.
He is thought to be the most senior officer to face a court martial for an alleged sex crime.
He is only the second Major General to face military trial in more than 200 years.
He was charged under Section 3 of the Sexual Offences Act, which covers sexual assault by touching.
Until recently, Maj Gen Roddis, who was born in Aberdour, Fife, Scotland, was director of strategy at Strategic Command, which oversees SAS missions and offensive cyber warfare.
Before that, he founded the Army’s Specialised Infantry Brigade — now called the Special Operations Brigade — and led it from 2017 to 2022.
Over the course of his 30-year career, he won a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for commanding 4 Scots, the Highlanders regiment, in Afghanistan in 2014.
He was made an MBE in 2009 and won two Queen’s Commendations for Valuable Service — one in 2008 and the second in 2017.
He was mentioned in dispatches for combat in Iraq in 2004.
He also spent more than a decade in “specialist military” missions which took him to 20 countries, according to his CV.
These included four combat tours of Iraq and Afghanistan, where he led groups of up to 120 soldiers.
Maj Gen Roddis, the eldest son of a Royal Navy officer, was also made deputy colonel of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, in an honorary role alongside King Charles.
The last time a Major General faced court martial was in 2021, when Maj Gen Nick Welch was convicted of school fees fraud.
He was sentenced to 21 months in prison.
Welch was the first Major General to face court martial since 1815 when Lieutenant General Sir John Murray was convicted of abandoning his siege guns without due cause in the Napoleonic Wars.
His conviction came weeks after Major General Chris Bell was ordered to resign for lying to his bosses about a relationship with a reservist in the secretive 77th Brigade, a psychological warfare unit.
An Army spokesman said: “This unacceptable behaviour by ex-major general Roddis fell well below the high standards expected of both our leaders and personnel and has no place in our armed forces.
“We recognise the courage shown by the victim in reporting this matter and are working to ensure victims feel empowered to come forward and are properly supported when they do.
“We’re determined to stamp out unacceptable behaviour, which is why we’re taking forward a number of initiatives to ensure the armed forces are a safe environment, such as improving reporting mechanisms and the introduction of an application to raise concerns – but we recognise there’s more to do and we are committed to making further improvements.”
