Regiment Commanding Officer (CO) Brian Gonsalves admitted a soldier suffered an attempted rape at knifepoint by another soldier in 2005.He told Supreme Court the Regiment dealt with the matter, and the culprit served 58 days in military jail.Lt Col Gonsalves also admitted a remark that he made to this newspaper that the public “does not need to know” about such incidents was “probably not an appropriate comment to make”.His evidence came as he was cross-examined by lawyer Eugene Johnston, who represents campaign group Bermudians Against the Draft (BAD).BAD went to Supreme Court yesterday in the fourth round of its battle to get military conscription outlawed.The campaigners have previously failed to win their case at the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and Privy Council on human rights grounds. They are now focusing on new arguments that conscripts’ rights under the Constitution are breached.Mr Johnston alleges that soldiers are not given their rights to protection from slavery or forced labour, to protection of freedom of conscience and to the protection of law. As such, he asked Lt Col Gonsalves about various allegations that make BAD members reluctant to serve.That includes an incident when soldiers went to Grenada in 2005 to help clear up after a hurricane, which Mr Johnston described as “the knife to the neck, the attempted rape”.Lt Col Gonsalves said: “Yes, I believe it was.”He said the incident occurred between two male soldiers of equal rank, and he investigated it. The culprit, who he did not identify, served some prison time in Grenada and some at Warwick Camp in Bermuda.Mr Johnston pointed out that the then Commander, Edward Lamb, described the incident in the media as “a minor altercation between two soldiers”.Lt Col Gonsalves said he did not know how it was characterised.When allegations of further sexual assaults at boot camp 2002 and boot camp 2008 were put to him by Mr Johnston, he replied: “I can’t recall.”According to Mr Johnston, a Regiment standing order preventing soldiers from speaking publicly means such incidents are covered up. He suggested there have been 14 other allegations of sexual impropriety in the Regiment, as revealed in this newspaper in 2009. Lt Col Gonsalves said he did not investigate those allegations.“Do you think a person who alleges such a thing is entitled to a public investigation where they can face their accusers?” inquired Mr Johnson.Lt Col Gonsalves replied that there would need to be an internal Regiment investigation first.“If there was criminal activity found, the police would be brought in straight away. We have even asked people who are making allegations about being sexually harassed to come forward,” he added.He said anyone uncomfortable with telling the Regiment about such an incident could speak to the police or a priest.Lt Col Gonsalves denied Mr Johnston’s suggestion the Regiment “uses the media to highlight its good aspects but keeps the bad under wraps”.The lawyer went on to quote excerpts from a report in this newspaper from September 2009 where Lt Col Gonsalves was asked about more than a dozen allegations of sexual abuse or harassment over the course of the last two decades.The CO agreed he refused to release statistics on the number of such allegations made during the Regiment’s 44-year history and that he commented: “It’s not something that the public needs to know. It’s not a problem.”He told the court yesterday this was “probably not an appropriate comment to make”.Lt Col Gonsalves agreed that he also told The Royal Gazette: “Because we don’t have many, there is no need to have statistics. If it was a problem and it’s happened on a regular basis, we may need to keep regular statistics.”Mr Johnston described this as “a real shocking comment, perhaps more inappropriate than the first comment”.Lt Col Gonsalves replied: “The ones we knew about as reported at the time were minimal.”This prompted Mr Johnston to ask: “Do you think even one person should come to your Regiment and be abused?”“No,” replied the CO.“Do you think even one person should come to your Regiment and be sexually assaulted?”“Absolutely not,” replied Lt Col Gonsalves.The case continues.