8 hours ago
A former British army sergeant major has been sentenced to six months in prison at
the court martial centre in Bulford for sexually assaulting Jaysley Beck, a teenage soldier who killed herself after senior officers failed to investigate the attack properly.
Michael Webber, who has left the army, assaulted Gunner Beck during a training exercise in Hampshire in July 2021, when she was 19.
She reported what had happened to her seniors but the police were not informed and Beck was encouraged to accept a letter of apology from Webber.
Later that year Beck did not report that another man, her line manager, was bombarding her with texts and voice messages, apparently having lost faith in the complaints procedure, an inquest heard.
Beck, from Cumbria, took her own life in her room at Larkhill Camp, Wiltshire, in December 2021, five months after Webber’s assault.
At the end of Beck’s inquest in February, the coroner Nicholas Rheinberg said Beck’s complaint about being sexually assaulted during the exercise should have been reported to the police and the failure to do so breached army policy. He said the army’s failure to take appropriate action “more than minimally” contributed to her death.
Beck’s mother, Leighann McCready, said: “Jaysley did everything right. She reported the assault immediately, not once but twice. Her chain of command failed her.”
McCready said even after the coroner’s findings, the family had to push for the assault to be treated as a crime. “The justice system shouldn’t work like this – whether civilian or military.
“It shouldn’t depend upon a grieving family pressing at every stage for investigations that should have been conducted right at the start when Jaysley first reported what had happened to her.”
Beck, who joined the army at 16, reported that Webber had “made a pass” at her, put his hand between her legs and “pinned her down” while trying to kiss her. She was so scared that she ended up sleeping in her car for safety.
After the inquest, the army said it should have done “so much more” to support and protect Beck. Her family said they believed that, so far, little had changed in the army’s complaints procedures.
Webber was sentenced at the military court in Bulford, Wiltshire.
