Founder of charity for army veterans, 54, accused of groping woman’s buttocks at awards ceremony

The founder of a charity for army veterans groped a woman’s buttocks to dare to check if she was wearing underwear, a court heard.

Timothy Evers, 54, denies sexually assaulting the woman when she posed for a photo with him at a hotel in Westminster, London.

The former royal engineer, who founded Sapper Support in 2014, attended a charity awards show on October 5, 2017, where he won the award for best new charity.

The woman said she had not been drinking when Mr Evers approached her and asked her to ‘come over here’ for a photograph, Westminster Magistrates Court heard.

‘I didn’t like it. I thought it was weird,” she said.

She said they then went to another part of the building, where she saw a large group of people on the stairs.

“I thought they wanted a group photo. They were all laughing and watching him take a picture of me.

“One of them took the photo.

‘He put his arm around me like that [indicating her waist], then puts his hand on my buttocks. He put his hand all around my ass and squeezed it.

The woman claims that Mr. Evers then told her that he had tried to check whether she was wearing underwear at the challenge of his colleagues.

She continued: “I yelled at him and said ‘you have no right to do this'”. I was trying not to cry. I had to go. I had to flee. And then I cried.

She said she then went to tell someone at the event what happened.

“I was crying and saying ‘this guy just touched my ass,'” she said.

The woman added: ‘At an event like this at this time of night I guess everyone is a bit squiffy. He was not tottering.

“I went home and sat in my room. I was furious, I was crying. I was really upset. It occurred to me to call the police. But I did not do it.

“I felt very humiliated. I don’t like to use the word triggered, but I was very triggered to be touched by an intimate part of myself.

“I felt very angry with myself because I kept thinking about what I could have done to avoid this. I was angry with myself for walking with him and not staying where I was.

When she later complained about the incident to Sapper Support, they responded by saying “the exuberance and bubbly were to blame”.

“I assumed it was him. I thought it was very dismissive and unrelated to me being hurt,’ the woman said.

The alleged victim reported the incident in 2020.

“It happened right before the #MeToo movement that was important to me,” she explained.

Mr Evers, of Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, denies sexual assault and claims someone else touched the woman’s buttocks.

The woman said she hadn’t been drinking when Mr Evers approached her and asked her to ‘come over here’ for a picture, Westminster Magistrates Court heard.

The veteran told the court he drank just one glass of champagne at the event that night.

He said: “It was a big deal for me. We were a very young charity. I wanted to be able to remember that.

He said he asked the woman for a photo for her social media and she agreed.

“I put my arm around his waist. I had my trophy in my hand,” he said.

“The images were blurry, it was dark. I deleted them. I said I wasn’t going to bother her anymore.

Her attorney asked, “She says you put your hand down and squeezed her buttocks.”

Mr Evers denied sexually assaulting the woman and replied: ‘That didn’t happen.’

He later added, “I didn’t know who did it…I thought one of my volunteers might have done it.”

Mr. Evers joined the Royal Engineers in 1992 and later joined the 33rd Engineer Regiment EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) Wimbish and served in Bosnia.

The father-of-two became a firefighter after leaving the military and started Sapper Support in 2014 after hearing about a friend’s death with PTSD.

The trial continues tomorrow.