14 hours ago
9
Two serving British army officers face criminal charges over the handling of a case of sexual assault of the teenage soldier Jaysley Beck, who later took her own life.
Beck, a Royal Artillery Gunner, was assaulted during a training exercise in Hampshire in July 2021, when she was 19, and killed herself five months later.
The former sergeant major Michael Webber, who has since left the army, was sentenced in October to six months in prison for sexually assaulting Beck.
On Friday, the Ministry of Defence said the Service Prosecuting Authority – the equivalent of the Crown Prosecution Service for military personnel – had charged two officers with offences relating to harming military discipline.
It is understood Maj James Hook and Col Samantha Shepherd, both of whom gave evidence at the inquest into Beck’s death, will face court martial on the charges.
The MoD said: “Following an investigation by the Defence Serious Crime Command, we can confirm two individuals have been charged with offences under section 19 of the Armed Forces Act (conduct prejudicial to good order and service discipline).
“It would be inappropriate to comment further as legal proceedings are ongoing.”
Beck’s mother, Leighann McCready, said in a statement she was relieved two people had been charged but remained “very unhappy” with parts of the army’s response.
She said the family had written to the Chief of the General Staff after the inquest and pointed out the “multiple army failings in the chain of command that had led to her death”.
“As a consequence of that, he directed that our concerns be referred to the service police and we are relieved finally to have reached this stage today where two individuals have been charged.”
She said it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on the latest cases while they were active, “but we can say we remain very unhappy with other parts of the army’s response”.
“We were promised a new independent complaints process for service people – especially young women like Jaysley who often have to deal with very difficult and challenging situations we have heard nothing further about this and as far as we can tell, young women are still not benefiting from it, almost a year on from the inquest and more than four years on from Jaysley’s death.
“We feel constantly as though we have to push the army to change and it is completely exhausting.”
Webber had engaged Beck in a drinking game before touching her thigh and trying to kiss her. She pushed him away and locked herself in her car for the night before making a complaint to her superiors in the morning.
The incident was not reported to police and Webber wrote a letter of apology to Beck. He was later promoted.
Since Beck’s death, the MoD has set up a serious crime command and launched a violence against women and girls taskforce, and more recently has agreed in principle to remove the handling of serious complaints from the individual services.
