The tragic faces of three military girls who killed themselves after abuse by their colleagues present instances MUST be heard by felony judges, urges rape charity who say courtroom martials will not be match for goal

The tragic suicides of three female soldiers who were sexually assaulted in the army shows why cases should be taken out of the military’s hands, a rape charity has warned.

Two years ago, the Ministry of Defence announced a zero-tolerance policy for sexual offences in the military, meaning those found guilty are discharged from service.

But experts say the court martial system is broken, where many acts which would shock civilians are brushed off as the ‘culture’ of the force, and there are calls for sexual offences to always be tried in a civilian court instead.

Some women who report being raped or assaulted go on to take their own lives because they cannot bear how they are treated – with some saying their peers refused to work with them as a result of coming forward.

This was the case in the suicides of Gunner Jaysley-Louise Beck, 19 – who was taken advantage of by four men, Cpl Anne-Marie Ellement, 30 – who said she was raped by two men – and cadet Olivia Perks, 21 – who allegedly suffered ‘gross sexual misconduct‘.

Charity Rape Crisis told MailOnline that victims are being ‘re-traumatised’ by how their allegations are dealt with in the military and court martial system.

And researcher Dr Harriet Gray said that sexual harassment in the forces is often written off as ‘banter’, while survivors are ‘blamed and shamed’.

She said they are being ‘betrayed by multiple levels of the institution to which they have dedicated their lives’ – sometimes even being punished for rule violations that only came to light because they reported an assault.

The military has faced a string of horrific scandals about the treatment of women – of which only make up 11 per cent of those serving. Salute Her – which supports female military personnel – claimed there is an ‘epidemic’ of rape culture across the armed forces.

Some of the victims of sexual offences are teenagers, as the minimum age of enlistment in the UK is 16. In one year, nine rapes and two sexual assaults were reported at a training centre for 16 and 17-year-olds.

Amelia Handy, the charity’s head of police, told MailOnline that sexual offence cases should be tried in civilian courts instead of at court martial, due to the ‘devastatingly low’ rates of conviction for these types of cases when tried by a board of their peers.

She said: ‘All sexual offence cases should be tried in criminal courts, no matter the context in which they are reported to have taken place. 

‘Charging and conviction rates in the criminal justice system are already devastatingly low. But the situation in military courts is even worse, with far lower percentages of tried rape cases ending in a conviction.

‘The military justice system needs more independence. Boards that decide cases made up of senior military personnel, and there is also a lack of independent specialist advocacy for the victims and survivors of rape and other sexual offences. 

‘Without adequate support, these victims and survivors – who have endured traumatic crimes – face an increased risk of being re-traumatised by the process.

‘While the overwhelming majority of adults who experience sexual violence and abuse are women, the overwhelming majority of perpetrators are men. 

‘This, coupled with the fact that the military is both inherently hierarchical and very male-dominant, makes it extremely difficult for younger and more junior women who experience sexual violence and abuse to challenge anyone, especially men who are of a senior rank. As a result, they are left feeling unsafe and unsupported.’

Last year, there was a consultation where it was recommended that cases of murder, manslaughter, rape and sexual assaults should always be heard in civilian criminal courts, but this was rejected and instead this is decided upon by a case-by-case basis.

The MOD said that civilian courts and court martials cannot be compared and the data showing lower rates of conviction is ‘flawed’. Their data shows that there is a higher rate of rape cases resulting in a charge – but a charge is not a conviction.

Studies show that juries in Crown Courts are far more likely to return a guilty verdict. 

The conviction rate for sexual assault cases at court martial is 40 per cent according to the MOD, while it is double – 82 per cent – in civilian courts, according to the CPS.

And victims can’t decide which justice system to use.

However reforms last year made it so their views are now considered when this decision is being made by a Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for the CPS and a Managing Prosecutor or Deputy Director in the Service Prosecuting Authority.

A parliamentary report in 2021 found that the British military fails to protect its female recruits, with almost two thirds experiencing sexual harassment, bullying, and discrimination.

It pointed to instances of gang rape, women being bullied for refusing to sleep with their male colleagues and superiors, and competitions taking place among men to ‘bag’ the women to get a trophy.

The defence subcommittee found that 62 per cent of the 4,106 veterans and current female personnel who gave testimony had either witnessed or received ‘unacceptable behaviour’. 

Military accommodation was perceived as being more dangerous for women than being deployed overseas.

In 2018, the suicide rate for female veterans was almost twice that of women who did not serve.

Gunner Jaysley-Louise Beck, 19, was found dead after taking her own life on her military base on Salisbury Plain on December 15, 2021.

Separately, another soldier – Lance Corporal Michael Joseph Miah, 28 – also committed suicide on a different base within hours.

Gunner Beck, from 14 Regiment Recruitment Team, was found by her colleagues in her room at Larkhill.

Meanwhile, L/Cpl Miah, from the Household Cavalry, who was married, was found dead in his garage at Bulford.

The tragic deaths came after at least five confirmed suicides at Salisbury Plain – known as ‘suicide camp’ by army wives – since 2018.

Young Gunner Beck was ‘taken advantage’ of by four men including her line manager before she killed herself in December 2021.

She had joined the Army in 2019 aged just 16 – having begun recruit training at Harrogate before joining 47 Regiment, Royal Artillery.

Thirteen sexual offences at the college were reported between July 22, 2022, and August 17, 2023 – including nine reports of rape, two of sexual assault and two of voyeurism, according to North Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner.

In January 2023 one instructor, Cpl Simon Bartram, 32, was sentenced to 20 months’ military detention after being found guilty of sexual assault as well as eight counts of cruel or indecent disgraceful conduct.

He was found to have targeted teenage recruits as young as 16.

Before her death, Gunner Beck endured an ‘intense period of unwelcome behaviour’ from a superior and was also targeted by other men who pursued her for relationships.

At the time of her death she was in a relationship with a married Bombardier who would frequently turn up drunk at her room late in the evening.

Another male soldier, a warrant officer, is said to have sexually assaulted her on a night out by putting his hands between her legs and grabbing her by the neck at a party. She had to hide in a bathroom to escape him.

Gunner Beck sent a series of messages to the Bombardier – her immediate boss – which provided a harrowing insight into her declining mental state and desperate attempts to stop him harassing her.

One read: ‘It’s not normal how you feel… but I can’t be there to support you with it because the way you feel for me is the main issue and I can’t handle it any more’.

On December 7, she asked to be removed from a task that evening because she could no longer cope with his behaviour towards her.

In November 2021, the teenager’s superior sent her more than 3,500 WhatsApp messages and voicemails in which he described how much he craved a relationship with her. At one point Gunner Beck drafted a message calling the officer ‘possessive and psychotic’.

On December 9, less than a week before she passed, Gunner Beck seemed to suffer a severe panic attack.

She also described ‘suicidal feelings’ to a colleague, who subsequently gave evidence to the inquiry, and discussed how she was suffering from ‘night terrors’.

The conduct of Gunner Beck’s immediate boss was ‘almost certain’ to be a ‘causal factor’ in her death at Larkhill Camp, Wiltshire in December 2021, a report found.

The 19-year-old called her mother the night after she was sexually assaulted by another male soldier, who held the rank of Warrant Officer.

Ms McCready said: ‘She said he put his hands between her legs and tried to grab her from around the neck. She shouted: ”Get off me, Sir”.

‘That night she slept in her car, as she was afraid if she went to bed he would have come into her room. She also told a female friend, who was on guard duty, to stay on the phone until she had fallen asleep and just listen. And [if] she hears anything, just ring for help.’

The sexual allegation was reported to army chiefs by one of Gunner Beck’s colleagues and resulted in the perpetrator receiving a minor sanction and writing her an apology letter – in which he told her ‘my door will always be open’.

Gunner Beck’s family said that the soldier had been reluctant to report her boss’ behaviour, believing that her concerns would not be taken seriously.

Speaking to The Times, another female soldier who knew Beck said she doesn’t know many women in the army who haven’t been sexually harassed at some point, and men don’t think there will be any repercussions for their behaviour. 

Gunner Beck had done her recruit training at Harrogate before joining 47 Regiment, Royal Artillery.

Wiltshire Police has submitted a full coronial file for consideration ahead of an inquest which is due to take place in early 2025.

David Gee, an adviser with the Child Rights International Network, said he thought ‘on this record, Harrogate cannot be regarded as safe’.

He added that difficulties have been made worse by the young age of the recruits, no matter how welfare arrangements were structured.

‘This is not a British problem. This is a problem all over the world when young people are recruited to the military. It is not something you can solve by imposing a zero-tolerance policy and hope it will go away,’ he said.

Britain is the only country in the whole of Europe to recruit teenagers aged 16 and 17 to its armed forces.

In the 2021 report, six in 10 women in the forces said they didn’t report bullying, harassment or discrimination and of those who did complain, a third rated the experience as ‘extremely poor’.

Servicewomen also described their chain of command as not wanting to report sexual assaults to the service police, despite this being an obligation.

The 2021 report recommended that cases of rape and sexual assault should be dealt with in civilian courts instead. 

Three women – Summer Wright, Julia Hourihane and Shannon Holmes – brought a legal challenge against the MoD, arguing that these cases needed to be heard in the civilian justice system because of how low the conviction rate is at court martial.

Convictions for rape in the military are improving but remain far, far lower than the rate in civilian courts.

Research by University College London last year found that – even if a servicewoman manages to get her case investigated and charged – the accused is unlikely to be found guilty.

In 2021, only five of 25 rape charges at court martial ended in a conviction, with a 20 per cent rate. Two years later this improved to a 35 per cent rate.

But at a civilian court, the conviction rate for rape charges was 75 per cent.

One case heard at court martial convicted a RAF squadron leader of sexual assault by penetration. It found him to be a risk to women and his victim tried to commit suicide.

But he was sentenced to just 18 months – to serve nine – in prison. According to Sentencing Guidelines, a similar case tried in the civil system would hand out a sentence of between four and nine years.

Dr Harriet Gray, a senior lecturer at the University of York, recently co-published a study into servicewomen’s experiences of the aftermath of sexual assault in the army.

She told MailOnline: ‘Sexual harassment remains both widespread and normalised in the British military, often written off as ‘banter.’ 

‘This creates an environment where sexual crimes are not only more likely, but more difficult to recognise and less likely to be taken seriously.

‘When they try to report a sexual assault, many women serving in the British military face a cruel backlash. They are blamed and shamed, bullied by colleagues, and do not always find the support they need from their Chain of Command. 

‘Indeed, a recent study revealed that servicewomen may even be punished by the Chain of Command for violations of institutional rules – such as drinking alcohol or being out of bounds – that only came to light because they reported their sexual assault. 

‘Victim-survivors of sexual violence are being betrayed by multiple levels of the institution to which, in many cases, they have dedicated their lives. For many, this institutional betrayal can be psychologically devastating.’

In 2016, Cpl Anne-Marie Ellement took her own life after claiming that she had been raped by two colleagues.

She died at Bulford Barracks in Wiltshire on October 9 2011, two years after alleging that she had been raped while stationed in Sennelager, Germany.

According to her older sister Sharon Hardy, ‘she suffered ‘the most awful rape-related bullying’, which ended in her decision to take her own life.

Two former soldiers were acquitted of rape following a court martial.

The Royal Military Police – the Army’s internal police force – later admitted that ‘mistakes were made’ in the investigation and that ‘Anne-Marie deserved better’.

A statement read: ‘Following the inquest into her death in 2014, Brigadier John Donnelly apologised on behalf of the Army to Anne-Marie’s family for the failures in her treatment which contributed to her death’.

Following the verdicts at trial, Judge Jeff Blackett criticised the delays in the case coming to trial and the culture of the RMP at the time.

In 2019, Officer cadet Olivia Perks, 21, was discovered dead at the prestigious military academy Sandhurst in Berkshire, having committed suicide.

An inquest heard the cadet was allegedly the victim of ‘gross sexual misconduct’ by senior officers before she died.

Perks had made a ‘significant’ attempt at taking her own life before she died during a Royal Engineers’ visit the year before, and there were a ‘series of red flags’ about her mental health.

She was deemed to be at a ‘low risk of reoccurrence’ for suicide as her attempts were deemed ‘half-hearted’ and ‘rudimentary’.

Coroner Bridget Dolan KC said the cadet was reportedly told to sign a letter that makes clear ‘deliberate self-harming is inappropriate behaviour’ and she was told to ‘pack’ it in.

Warrant Officer (Class 2) Carl Lamb, who was then a colour sergeant, told an inquest into the 21-year-old’s death that he had told her she ‘had enough male company,’ just a day before she was found hanged.

He made the remark in front of a mostly male group amid ‘rumours’ about an incident at a Sandhurst ball.

Her inquest at Reading Town Hall was told she had spent the night with Colour Sergeant Griffith after the Falklands Ball on February 1, 2019 and there were widespread rumours about it.

Friends told the inquest she felt like she was ‘on trial’ as she was questioned about the incident and rumours about it were spread on WhatsApp.

Both of them denied any sexual activity had taken place.

Her inquest heard that she told Sophie Given, who she met on a dating site, that the staff sergeant had slept with her and she ‘may be pregnant’.

A letter addressed to her mother was left in her room when she died and read: ‘[I] just can’t deal with the false rumours which have ruined my army career.’

Mike Rawlinson, representing Ms Perks’ mother Louise Townsend, said the family were ‘very concerned about sexual misconduct committed against her by senior military officer’ and it was ‘clearly’ on her mind at the time of her death.

The army said it was ‘deeply sorry’ for the missed opportunities to prevent the young cadet’s death.

Last year, a female soldier who was raped by an Army sergeant colleague after a late night party told the Mail how she was left suicidal following her ordeal.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, accused the Army of failing to care for her properly in the aftermath of the attack in her room.

Speaking alongside her mother, she described how she had been ‘let down’ from the moment she reported the rape, and was ‘never treated as a victim’.

The married father-of-two attacked her after binge drinking all day and night at a mini festival party called ‘Camp Messtival’ in their barracks.

A court martial in Catterick, North Yorkshire, heard how Ball, spent all day and evening at the event in July 2022 which was a parody of the well known Camp Bestival.

He later went with two other party-goers to the junior officers’ mess, despite it being forbidden for him to be there due to his more senior rank.

The three of them went to the room of the victim who had not been drinking as she had been working until 3am. Ball was so drunk that he was sick in her room, leading to him being placed him in a room next door to ‘sleep it off’.

He repeatedly emerged and tried to get back into the ‘after party’ before being let in and supposedly falling asleep.

Ball raped the victim after the other guests left at 9am, despite her desperate attempts to fight him off. He was found guilty of rape and sexual assault.

The victim told MailOnline how she reported the rape immediately to a senior officer before phoning her mother and partner in tears.

But she said she was then forced to wait in her room for hours for Military Police to arrive and begin their investigation.

The victim said: ‘I felt like I wasn’t even a victim. I waited from ten in the morning till gone 3pm for the Military Police to even arrive at my camp.’

SA male officer in full uniform took photographic evidence of her intimate injuries which she and her mother described as ‘totally inappropriate’.

The victim said she felt she was forced back to work by Army bosses within days of being raped by Ball.

She insisted she was not given proper support when she told her military bosses of her crippling mental health problems and episodes of self-harm after her rape.

Rather than offering support, the Army threatened to have her ‘retired from military service on medical grounds’.

She added: ‘In July, I took an overdose. And I was in the hospital only for the evening when my Mum contacted them about my safety plan.

‘Because my safety plan had kind of been thrown out the window. They said I could get discharged from the Army due to self-harm, even though I needed treatment.’

The army said they would investigate any ‘shortcomings’.

Aurora New Dawn, a charity which supports victims of sexual abuse, said: ‘At Aurora we understand all to well how difficult it is for victims to report sexual violence. 

‘There are added and unique barriers when those victims are in the military. This can be compounded when the perpetrator is a colleague or a more senior officer as in the tragic case of Jaysley-Louise Beck. 

‘We believe it is essential for victims to be able to get independent specialist support outside of the military, and we work in partnership with our colleagues in the Armed Forces to ensure that as many victims are provided that service across the UK and abroad.’ 

An MOD spokesperson said: ‘Sexual assault and other criminal offences have no place in the Armed Forces and allegations are taken extremely seriously and investigated thoroughly.

‘We have made a number of changes to ensure the protection of victims, including establishing the Victim Witness Care Unit, which provides independent advice and support for victims and witnesses of serious crime.

‘The Service Prosecution Authority has recently undergone independent inspections, which recognised the high standard of their legal decision-making, including in cases involving serious sexual offences or domestic abuse, as well as recognising the care and support shown to victims.

‘We encourage anyone who may have been a victim or a witness to a crime to come forward so that justice can be sought.

‘It is misleading to compare the civilian and military justice systems. A far higher proportion of cases within the Service Justice System proceed to trial

‘The comparisons of conviction rates cited are flawed and should not be relied upon.’