Ex-Army sergeant major who sexually assaulted teenage soldier Jaysley Beck months before her death is jailed
A former senior Army sergeant has been jailed for sexually assaulting a young soldier who later took his own life.
Warrant Officer Michael Webber pleaded guilty at the Court Warfare Center in Bulford, Wiltshire, last month to assaulting Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck in an attack that left him “seriously frightened” and left feeling “powerless and betrayed”, according to his family.
The 19-year-old soldier’s body was found at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire on December 15, 2021, five months after the incident. Her mother then said: “I saw the change in her with my own eyes; my bright, confident daughter became quiet and withdrawn.”
But Gunner Beck’s family stressed that it was the impact of the attack, as well as the way the incident was subsequently handled by authorities, including the pressure put on him not to report to police, that “shattered his faith in the system that was supposed to deal with him”.
A service investigation in 2023 also found Gunner Beck “was subjected to a range of inappropriate behavior by senior staff in the months before his death”, of which Webber was just one, a court heard.
Webber was sentenced to six months at the Court Martial Center in Bulford, Wiltshire, on Friday. Since he had already left the military, the judge said he could not be dismissed, but Webber was also “relegated to the ranks,” meaning he was demoted to the lowest possible rank in the military.
Gunner Beck’s mother, Leighann McCready, said in a victim impact statement read at the hearing: “I truly believe what he did and how he handled it broke something inside of him that he couldn’t repair.”
Sister Emilli Beck He added: “I feel my sister was shamefully manipulated first by Michael Webber and then by those who protected her, encouraging her to consider the impact an official report would have on Michael Webber’s family and career and discouraging her from going any further.”
Anthony Beck, Gunner Beck’s father, described Webber’s behavior as making him “sickened” and said: “What he did not only hurt Jaysley, it tore our family apart. It will haunt me for the rest of my life. The world keeps moving but mine has stopped. Whatever punishment is given to him, he will never come close to the service of life I served without my daughter.”
During an inquest into her death, Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg ruled “on the balance of probabilities” that Gunner Beck had been sexually assaulted by a senior colleague and that the Army’s failure to take appropriate precautions “more than minimally” contributed to her death.
The coroner added that Gunner Beck’s complaint that he was sexually assaulted during a training exercise on Thorney Island in Hampshire “should have been reported to the police and failure to do so breached Army policy”.
On Friday, the court heard Webber told Gunner Beck she was “beautiful” before “putting his hand behind her head to kiss her and also touching her thigh” during an adventure training exercise in July 2021. Despite Webber asking her to stop, the hearing was told Gunner Beck became too afraid to return to where he was staying, causing her to hide from him in the toilet and then sleep in his car for safety that night.
The court heard that Gunner Beck, who joined the army at 16, “made a series of reports” about the incident, including to his mother, friends and his chain of command in the days immediately following the incident. But prosecutor Commodore James Farrant told the hearing that the chain of command chose to treat his complaint as a “minor administrative” matter. “I am confident that the court will see that, whatever the justification, it is not appropriate to deal with this matter from an administrative perspective,” he said. “This meant that no police intervention could take place.”
The court heard Webber admitted his “unacceptable behaviour” in an interview and wrote a letter of apology to Gunner Beck, who was promoted shortly afterwards. Gunner Beck later told his mother, “I got a letter, he got a promotion,” which Ms. McCready said “has been echoing in my head ever since.”
Emilli Beck said Webber should have been demoted “immediately” and a proper investigation should have started the morning after the incident. “I believe with all my heart that this will change everything, and if it had, we wouldn’t be here today,” he said.
Emma Norton, a lawyer from the Center for Military Justice (CMJ) who represented the family, called the Army’s behavior and failure to take appropriate action “outrageous” and “unconscionable”.
Lucy Baston, another barrister at CMJ, which supports women in the UK Armed Forces, said: “Many of the women we support have been harassed, raped or sexually assaulted during their service. These women tell us about the obstacles they faced when they tried to speak to the Chain of Command (CoC) following these events, just as Jaysley did in 2021. “In many of our cases, we find that the CoC has failed to follow the relevant policies in place to protect and support victims of sexual offences.
“As a result, some women suffer in silence, failing to report serious sexual offenses to the police and failing to complain about sexual harassment. This can have devastating consequences, something Jaysley’s family helped highlight following her death.”
Following the investigation, the Army said it “should have done much more to support and protect” Gunner Beck.
Webber was “devastated” and accepted his actions “in some way contributed to the tragic outcome” when Gunner Beck took his own life five months after attacking him, his lawyer Matthew Scott told the court. “He makes no excuses for what he did.”
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