Drunken sailor insulted international guests at Edinburgh Tattoo after overindulging at a free lunch

A Royal Navy sailor who was supposed to be guarding the Edinburgh Military Tattoo was too drunk to perform duties after overindulging at a free lunch, a court martial heard.

Petty Officer Christian Ramsay, 39, was due to act as a guard at the tattoo, carrying out important ceremonial duties at the renowned event in front of guests.

However, PO Ramsay instead spent the ceremony being looked after by a Royal Navy colleague after he got “seriously drunk” at a military lunch.

At the lunch, which included senior guests from armed forces around the world, he “over-consumed” the free alcohol and became so drunk he “lost all self-control” and “embarrassed himself and his colleagues”.

A court martial heard yesterday that the sailor was “completely out of his head” and “swanned around” the reception “offending people”. He made distasteful jokes about rape to a female colleague, offensive remarks to a senior Indian military representative about his heritage, and told an offensive joke to US military personnel about the “USA’s history”.

PO Ramsay, who is based in Faslane, Scotland, and has served with the Royal Navy for 18 years, was fined £1,500 at Portsmouth Military Court, Hants, for his drunken antics on Aug 26 2016.

He admitted two counts of unfitness through alcohol. Assistant Judge Advocate General Judge Robert Hill said his behaviour “could not be more of a disgrace to the Navy”.

Capt John Atwill, prosecuting, said of PO Ramsay that “pretty much every element of his self-control was gone”.

“He did rounds of the reception trying to offend people,” he said. This included approaching the US military band where he “offered them an offensive joke about the USA’s history, which I will also not repeat”.

Lieutenant Freddie Huntley, defending, told the court martial that PO Ramsay was in a “heightened state of emotion” as his wife of 12 years had left him a month before the incident and also his young nephew had died violently shortly before.

She said the father-of-one accepted his behaviour, and added: “He still has not drunk. He said this is a life choice, a permanent resolve, as alcohol does not agree with him.”

In a letter to the court, PO Ramsay said: “I want to publicly and sincerely apologise.”

Fining him, the judge said he accepted that PO Ramsey  was remorseful and had rehabilitated himself.