‘Dinosaur’ troopers who inform filthy jokes to feminine colleagues face courtroom martial
EXCLUSIVE: While soldiers fight to keep Britain safe, the Daily Star Sunday can reveal that many female soldiers are being subjected to horrific abuse disguised as “jokes”
British troops who tell dirty jokes to female colleagues face being court martialled for sexual harassment, the Daily Star Sunday can reveal. The move comes after 60 percent of female troops said they were either told or in earshot to male colleagues telling sexualised jokes to colleagues.
Defence chiefs believe that sexualised jokes are a form of verbal sexual abuse and harassment which are driving women out of the armed forces. Senior officers want to be able to court martial repeat offenders or have them summarily dismissed on the grounds that telling dirty jokes to women is intimidatory.
One serving soldier told us that she was constantly referred to as a “split” by one sergeant and when she complained was told that he was “only joking”. A recent Ministry of Defence report revealed that 60 percent of women currently serving in the armed forces reported being told dirty jokes by colleagues.
The report also found that 70 per cent of female troops had experienced some form of sexualised behaviour in the last 12 months. One serving female soldier said there are plenty of male colleagues in jobs with considerable responsibility who attempt to intimidate women with dirty jokes which they dismiss as harmless banter.
She told the Daily Star Sunday: “I have been a soldier for 11 years and there has hardly been a day where someone hasn’t made a dirty joke in front of me. I used to laugh not because I thought it was funny but because I felt intimidated.
“I now call out anyone as a dinosaur who cracks dirty jokes. The standard response is that it’s only a bit of banter but it isn’t its abuse.
“I’ve had comments about my breasts and my bum and when I’ve complained I’ve been called a lesbian or accused of being frigid. There’s no point in the MOD saying this is unacceptable behaviour because no one takes any notice but they will if they are booted out of the army.”
Another female soldier said that she was admonished by a senior officer after threatening to slap a soldier around the face after he made a “disgusting joke about female genitalia. She said: “A Warrant Officer heard me threatening to slap another soldier around the face but rather than reporting the soldier he threatened to report me and claimed it was my behaviour which was unacceptable.”
Colonel Phil Ingram, a former Army Intelligence Officer said: “Two previous reports have highlighted serious problems with the treatment of women in the armed forces and the MoD has done nothing. The MoD’s lack of action to date has created many more victims.
“It is equally clear the MoD either doesn’t know how to stop inappropriate behaviour. I should be shocked but I’m not as it’s been going on for years — I’m saddened that the MoD refuses to acknowledge they don’t know what they are doing and are failing so many more victims.”
An MOD spokesperson said: “Unacceptable behaviour, including sexualised jokes have absolutely no place within our Armed Forces. We’re committed to rooting this out, including through cultural change and initiatives such as training, education and a new task force to tackle such behaviour; last week we published the first ever sexual harassment survey to better confront and address this issue.”
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