Senior officers ‘let down’ teenage soldier months before her suicide, court told
A teenage soldier was “let down” by two officers when she “told each of them enough to understand that she may have been sexually assaulted” five months before she took her own life, prosecutors have told a court martial.
Gunner Jaysley Beck, 19, died in December 2021, a board of three senior officers has been told at the Military Court Centre, at Catterick Garrison, in North Yorkshire.
On Tuesday, Colonel Samantha Shepherd and Major James Hook went on trial accused of “conduct prejudicial to good order and service discipline”.
Commander Paul Patterson, prosecuting, told the board how both senior officers “let down” Gunner Beck when she told them about an incident which happened on a Royal Artillery adventure training exercise on Thorney Island, in Chichester Harbour, in July 2021.
Commander Patterson said Beck told both officers about behaviour towards her by Warrant Officer Michael Webber at a social event during the exercise.
He said: “The prosecution case is that she told each of them about an incident that had happened” and “she told each of them enough to understand that she may been sexually assaulted”.
The prosecutor said Hook, who was a captain at the time and was running the exercise, did not treat the information he was given by Gunner Beck “in a manner consistent with its seriousness” and Shepherd “deliberately misreported what she had been told”.
In his opening statement, the prosecutor said that Warrant Officer Webber, Gunner Beck and Lance Corporal Drew Tudor were drinking together until the early hours of the morning of July 13.
The following morning Lance Corporal Tudor found Gunner Beck asleep in her car and she told him about what happened with Warrant Officer Webber.
Commander Patterson said the lance corporal fetched Hook who got in the car and Gunner Beck repeated what she had said.
The prosecutor said Hook and Gunner Beck then went on a walk and the officer gave the teenager until noon to decide whether she wanted to make a complaint.
Commander Patterson said of Hook’s actions that “far from empowering her (Gunner Beck), this could be seen as leaning on her”.
He said Hook later phoned a more senior officer back at the barracks to say Warrant Office Webber had “made a pass” at Gunner Beck.
Commander Patterson said Shepherd discussed the incident later with Gunner Beck but then deliberately failed to pass on information to Captain Mae King – the adjutant at the 14 Regiment Royal Artillery, which is responsible for discipline – that the young soldier alleged Warrant Officer Webber had touched her, or attempted to touch her.
Commander Patterson said that Shepherd failed to mention the touching or attempted touching allegation even when questioned by the captain, saying there was “no contact”.
The prosecutor said that the colonel “edited the information” when she “should have told the truth”.
He said: “She knew this would go to the service police.”
In a prepared statement given to military police, Shepherd said she believed she had disclosed the touching allegation to Captain King but could not be sure, Commander Patterson said.
Hook and Shepherd, who sat with their barristers in the court room, have each pleaded not guilty to a charge of conduct prejudicial to good order and service discipline.
The allegation against Shepherd is that “on a date in July 2021, you misreported what you had been told by Jaysley Beck on Jul 13 2021, to Mae King”.
The allegation against Hook is that “on July 13, 2021 you did not treat information passed to yourself by Jaysley Beck in a manner consistent with its seriousness”.
Lance Corporal Tudor, who worked with Gunner Beck on the Corps Engagement Team (CET), said she was “distressed” and “visibly shaken” when he found her in her car the morning after the incident.
L/Cpl Tudor told the hearing he had been drinking at a social event the night before and went to bed at about 3am.
He said Gunner Beck and Webber were still up, but there was “no inkling that anything was going on”.
The next morning, Gunner Beck was not in her accommodation and he found her asleep in her car, the hearing was told.
L/Cpl Tudor said: “When she woke up I spoke to her. She was immediately quite distressed, she cried and she just seemed visibly shaken.
“She explained (Webber) had tried something on with her, I don’t have the exact details of what she specifically said.”
He told the hearing: “I wanted to pass this on because this was something that clearly should not have taken place.”
L/Cpl Tudor said Gunner Beck agreed to let him pass it up the chain of command, and he told Major Hook that “something had happened”.
He said the three of them had a conversation in Gunner Beck’s car, where she repeated what she had told him to Major Hook, who was then a captain.
L/Cpl Tudor said the first time he was asked about the incident after that was at a service inquiry in 2022.
He told the court martial he could not remember now whether Gunner Beck had said Webber touched, or tried to touch her.
A statement from Major Richard Lupton, who was Gunner Beck’s senior line manager, said he was not on the retreat but was told by Major Hook that an incident of “inappropriate behaviour had been reported”.
He said: “My understanding was that Gunner Beck did not want to take this matter public, and to keep it discreet as much as possible.
“She chose the option of a letter of apology.”
Major Lupton’s statement said he delivered the letter from Webber to Gunner Beck and she was “very content with what had been written”.
Captain King, who is now a major, told the court how Shepherd came to see her and told her about an incident “where Mr Webber had made an inappropriate pass at Gunner Beck”.
Giving evidence, Major King said the colonel told her: “Mr Webber leaned forward in an attempt to kiss Gunner Beck, and that Gunner Beck had leant back so that the kiss had not occurred.
“And that, following this, Mr Webber had said something along the lines of ‘do you not fancy it?’, and that Gunner Beck had said that she didn’t and had left the bar.”
Major King said: “I confirmed that he hadn’t kissed her, that he hadn’t touched her and it had been an attempt as opposed to an act.”
The major outlined a range of consultations she made, including with the Royal Military Police (RMP), before making a recommendation to Shepherd about a course of action based on what the colonel had told her.
She said she was told by the RMP that the incident was “not a crime” because “there was no touching”.
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