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2 months ago
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The UK government may have breached a young soldier’s right to life by failing to protect her from a sexual assault from a more senior colleague and from sustained unwelcome sexual attention from her line manager, a coroner has concluded.
Gunner Jaysley Beck, 19, took her own life after faults in the way the army investigated a sexual assault, which made her reluctant to report her boss when he later launched an “onslaught” against her, the coroner said.
Nicholas Rheinberg, the assistant coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, strongly criticised “systemic” flaws in the way the army had investigated the sexual assault, saying all the senior officers involved had sought the least serious punishment for the man who carried out the attack.
The inquest in Salisbury heard that in July 2021 Jaysley was allegedly assaulted by Battery Sgt Maj Michael Webber while on an adventure exercise. She told a relative this had included him putting his hands between her legs, and she had been so terrified she fled from him and slept in her car.
Rheinberg said: “These were not reactions to a stolen kiss. On the balance of probabilities I find that Jaysley was sexually assaulted.”
The coroner criticised the way the incident was investigated, concluding it should have been reported to the police rather than being dealt with, as it was, through a “minor administrative action”.
Rheinberg said in the autumn and winter of 2021, Beck’s line manager, Bdr Ryan Mason, had sent her an “onslaught” of “inappropriate” messages that “clearly breached army codes of conduct”. He described Mason’s declarations of unrequited love as “disturbing” and “intolerable harassment over a sustained period”.
But the coroner said that because of the way the Webber complaint was dealt with, Beck, from Cumbria, did not report Mason. She was found dead in her room at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire on 15 December 2021.
The coroner said: “There was a failure on behalf of the state to deal appropriately or effectively with the complaint by Jaysley following a sexual assault. The failure was systemic in that every senior officer involved in the decision-based process in seeking to secure the least possible punitive outcome on behalf of the accused failed to follow correct procedures, and in so doing so breached established policies.
“Jaysley was left with a feeling of injustice but more importantly lost faith in her ability to complain effectively. Jaysley’s superiors were aware that a serious wrong had been done to Jaysley by a senior officer. Trivial disciplinary action was taken. Inappropriate paternalism can play no part in an institution that requires high standards.”
He added: “I find there is an arguable case for saying in relation to Jaysley the state breached her article two right to life by reason of the state’s failure to put in place a framework of laws, precautions, procedures and means of enforcement which will, to the greatest extent reasonably practicable, protect life.”
Serving and former soldiers told the inquest of a culture of women being harassed, propositioned and routinely targeted with misogynistic language. One witness said she had been propositioned by a sergeant when she was 17 and took to locking her door because she was frightened colleagues would walk in when she was in bed.
Appearing at the inquest, Brig Melissa Emmett, head of the army personnel services group, formally accepted that failures had been made in Beck’s case. She said: “We let her down in so many ways. We left Jaysley not aware of how she could raise her concerns and have the confidence to be listened to.”
Emmett said changes made since Beck’s death included removing the chain of command from the complaints system and the introduction of anonymous hotlines. She said “zero-tolerance policies” issued in 2022 “make it absolutely unequivocal what is expected of everybody”.
But as Beck’s inquest took place, dozens of female soldiers shared experiences of abuse on the Fill Your Boots social media account, prompting the head of the army, Gen Sir Roly Walker, to express how “disgusted” he was at what was still going on.
Emma Norton, the founder of the Centre for Military Justice and a lawyer for Beck’s family, led calls for an independent body to investigate complaints from service personnel. She said: “The service complaints process doesn’t work.”
Ahmed Al-Nahhas, the head of military claims at the law firm Bolt Burdon Kemp, said: “Every time there is a heartbreaking story like this, the MoD rolls out the usual excuses. The MoD cannot be trusted to investigate sexual crime.”
Lisa Longstaff, of Women Against Rape, said: “The reports from the inquest reveal a horrific pattern of sexual abuse of power by officers who are of a higher rank and also age. We’ve campaigned with women in the military for over a decade who describe a systemic problem of men given a green light to harass, bully and even rape their colleagues with impunity.”
The Child Rights International Network said: “As long as the army continues to be a law unto themselves, cases like Jaysley’s will continue to occur. The handling of complaints must be taken out of the hands of the army and there must be an urgent, full independent review of safeguarding mechanisms for the youngest recruits in the army and at the Army Foundation College in particular. Until that happens, the army will not be safe for young recruits.”
After Beck’s death, Wiltshire police investigated Webber and Mason but took no action.
