A former nuclear submarine commander has been jailed for the ‘planned and predatory’ sexual assault of a junior sailor who was plied with drink and drugs.Lieutenant Commander John Cursiter, 46, gave the 20-year-old trainee Royal Navy submariner large amounts of alcohol and cocaine during a night of heavy drinking in Plymouth.He then invited him back to the officers’ mess bar at HMS Drake where he took photographs of the heavily intoxicated young sailor asleep.Cursiter physically steered the young man to his cabin in the mess and committed the assault with the victim only realising the gravity of the situation when he woke up in his superior’s bed with their hands touching.Cursiter, an executive officer at the UK's nuclear submarine base in Faslane, Clyde, and a former commander of nuclear-enabled HMS Vanguard, was marched out of court in disgrace on Friday to begin a 33-month jail term.At an earlier court martial, Catterick Military Court heard Cursiter, who served in the Navy for 22 years, initially refused to allow the confused young submariner to leave his quarters before eventually relenting.When he left, the victim was heard letting out a ‘howling cry’ and told a member of staff on base: ‘I think I have been raped.’His victim told the court: ‘I am a straight guy, I have been with my partner for many years and I had only ever spoken to John Cursiter on that day.‘To wake up in his bed made me think I did not trust him. I woke up in boxers, socks and a T-shirt, everything just did not line up.’ John Cursiter, 46, was jailed for 33 months after being found guilty of sexual assault, false imprisonment and possession of cocaine following a court martialThe younger man said he suspected he had been given drugs, which was later confirmed in toxicology tests, and feared being kicked out of the Navy.Of the cocaine, he said: ‘I knew if he had given it to me in a drink it would be in my system, but I have no memory of how it would have happened.‘The Navy was my first option, my second and last option, it was all I had thought about since I was a child. I have never taken drugs in my life.’He left the Navy shortly after the incident in November 2022.In a statement read to the court, he added: ‘Before therapy all I could think about was what I could have done differently to change the outcome of that night… There is nothing I could have done differently to stop the actions of another person from happening.‘This was an ambush. I still feel a lot of resentment, anger and hatred towards the person responsible.‘I am learning not to let it impact my life, which no longer feels like my own, but his. It has destroyed my personal, social and intimate life forever.’ Cursiter was a former commander of nuclear-enabled HMS Vanguard and was based at Faslane on the Clyde - the home of Britain's nuclear submarine unitSentencing Cursiter, Judge Advocate Edward Legard said the court martial board was satisfied that Cursiter had used alcohol and drugs to render the victim ‘incapable’ so he could assault him.‘It is patently clear that this was a planned and predatory assault by a senior officer on a junior rating behind the closed door of his own cabin,’ he said.‘The victim was, in our judgement, in an acutely vulnerable state both in the lead up to and whilst being assaulted by you.‘He was in a state of extreme intoxication - he simply did not know where he was.‘He wanted to go back to his own quarters, to a place of safety, but you steered him away to your cabin and when you did so you had one thing and one thing alone in mind.’He added: ‘You made sure your victim was incapacitated through a combination of alcohol and drugs and you abused your rank and position.‘This was an inexcusable betrayal of the values and standards of the armed forces. It tarnishes the reputation of the uniformed services and the officer corps.’Following the court martial Cursiter, of Balloch, Dunbartonshire, was found guilty of sexual assault, false imprisonment and possession of cocaine, which was found in his coat pocket on his arrest.Defending Cursiter, David Scutt said: ‘He has lost his rank and his reputation.‘He is in many ways a broken man and will find gaining employment in civilian life a very real life challenge for so many reasons.’A pre-sentence report said Cursiter had issues with alcohol which he had been dealing with.It also acknowledged ‘a culture of drinking within the Navy, which is prevalent within the submarine service.’When news of Cursiter's arrest broke, a second former Royal Navy rating came forward to say he too had been sexually assaulted by Cursiter after a night of heavy drinking near Faslane on the Clyde – the home of Britain’s nuclear submarine unit – in 2013.Cursiter denied the offences ever happened and was cleared of three counts of sexual assault against the second complainant by the court martial board.