Royal Navy double murderer sexually assaulted four teenage boys after luring them to his flat in similar circumstances to how he killed two sailors, court hears

A former Royal Navy petty officer lured four teenage boys to his flat and sexually assaulted them in circumstances strikingly similar to those in which he murdered two sailors, a court heard.

Allan Grimson, 66, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of Sion Jenkins (20) and Nicholas Wright (18) in 2001.

He had invited two young Navy sailors back to his apartment and killed them both with a baseball bat, then disposed of their bodies on two dates exactly a year apart in the 1990s.

A court heard on Tuesday that Grimson sexually assaulted three other teenagers in the Navy around the same time as the murders and a teenage boy at the same flat in Portsmouth, Hampshire; He was thinking of killing two of them.

The alleged incidents occurred between February 1994 and November 1999. Grimson was indicted in February 2025.

Grimson, who denied the crimes, now stands trial Hants was charged at Winchester Crown Court with 11 counts of indecent assault, one count of rape and one count of taking an indecent photograph of a child.

Jurors were told Grimson abused the children in circumstances similar to the murders of Mr Jenkins and Mr Wright after inviting them to his three-bed flat in Portsmouth.

The court heard he was with them at ‘Joanna’s’ nightclub in Portsmouth; This was also where he was found with murder victims before taking them to his apartment.

Nicholas Wright, 18, from Leicester, was murdered by Grimson on 12 December 1997.

Sion Jenkins, pictured, was 20 years old when he was killed by Grimson.

One of the four alleged sexual assault victims was heard saying she was able to tell police about the incidents after Grimson was jailed in 2001 because she felt ‘safe’.

Grimson served in the Royal Navy, becoming a Petty Officer Marine Engineering Technician in 1999, and an instructor at the Royal Naval Fire Fighting School on Horsea Island, Portsmouth.

The court heard that this position brought him “into contact with many young men in their late teens” over whom he “exercised great authority by virtue of his status”.

Prosecutor John Price KC said: ‘He was a man in his late thirties at the time when the case was to be dealt with, in the late 1990s.

‘He had served in the Royal Navy since 1978. He was a large, strong man and was admired as a skilled instructor in the service. He was a single man.’

Jurors were told images of naked men engaging in sexual activity were found on his computer when he and his mother’s flat in north-east England was searched.

Mr Price told the jury that when Grimson was interviewed about Mr Wright’s case in 1999, he gave detailed information about some of the alleged offenses for which he was now on trial.

The court heard the first alleged victim joined the Royal Navy in 1998 and attended one of Grimson’s firefighting courses, after which Grimson sent him letters and an 18th birthday card.

The pair then went on an evening out with another friend at Joanna’s nightclub in Southsea, Portsmouth.

At the end of the evening, the three returned to Grimson’s apartment, where the alleged victim and Grimson shared a bed while his friend slept in another bedroom.

The two often went out drinking together and on another occasion went back to Grimson’s house. Grimson is charged with five counts of indecent assault and one count of rape.

Mr Price said the victim said: ‘Grimson tried to kiss me on the lips while I was lying in bed. We were both drinking.

‘I told Allan to stop immediately and that I wasn’t interested in anything like that. Allan immediately stopped and apologized.

We talked about it later and Allan told me he wasn’t sure about his sexuality.

‘I told him I didn’t mind him being gay as long as he never tried anything with me again.’

She later told police that Grimson had ‘taken advantage’ and ‘put pressure’ on her.

He also said he showed them Grimson’s baseball bat, which he once described to him as his “pride and joy.”

Mr Price said: ‘As will be seen, Grimson sought to portray his relationship to that young man as affectionate, if not affectionate, and therefore his relationship to him as good-natured and affectionate.

‘On the other hand, [the victim] It describes an act that is exploitative, controlling and ultimately sexually abusive, including the act of rape.’

The prosecutor said the fourth complainant was a 14-year-old boy from the north-east of England who visited his flat in Portsmouth and indecently assaulted him.

The court heard that on one occasion he took her to Disneyland Paris and on another they watched the 1999 FA Cup Final at his flat in Portsmouth.

The victim claimed Grimson took nude photos of her and became angry when she asked him to stop.

Mr Price said that in an interview with police in December 1999, Grimson told (the boy) what he had done and told the police (the boy) asked him to stop doing what he was doing and told the police that it made him angry.

‘He said that if others had not known he was with (the child) he would probably have killed him.

‘When he realized he couldn’t kill (the boy), he said his anger left him as quickly as it came.’

Mr Price said when police first interviewed the boy at his school the complainant denied having anything to do with the defendant, but after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for two murders he telephoned police and gave further interviews detailing the allegations against him.

The prosecutor said that when asked why he changed his account, the boy, now 16, replied, “Because I am safe.”

Mr Price said: ‘If anyone is inclined to think that Allan Grimson was exaggerating for effect when he talked about considering killing (the boy) when he protested, they need to reconsider after learning that Allan Grimson pleaded guilty to murdering these two men.

‘He said he killed them at his flat at 143A London Road by inviting them to go there with him and, according to Allan Grimson’s own account, the murders occurred while he was sexually assaulting them both.’

The prosecutor added that Grimson described his “disappointment” to police when he told them the second complainant had “left the flat alive”.

Telling the jury about Grimson’s murder convictions, Mr Price KC said he killed them in his London Road flat and ‘these two murders occurred while he was sexually assaulting them both’.

Mr Wright was killed after going to Joanna’s nightclub with Grimson on December 12, 1997. After attacking him with a stick, he put the body in the car and threw it in the trash.

Two years later he told the police where he was Mr. Wright’s remains were later discovered.

Mr Price said: ‘Exactly the same thing happened exactly a year later in 1998, also on 12 December.

Grimson and a man named Sion Jenkins, then twenty years old, left Joanna’s nightclub together and returned to Apartment 143A, where Grimson killed Jenkins.

‘Again, he used his car to remove the body at his own expense.

‘After police found Wright’s body on the evening of 16 December 1999, Grimson told them about Jenkins and identified them with the location where the body was hidden, i.e. where it was found.

‘Grimson told police in December 1999 that he killed Wright with a baseball bat; He said he received this stick from Diego Garcia while he was serving on a Royal Navy ship.’

The trial has been going on for four weeks.