Serving army officers face court martial over handling of Jaysley Beck sexual assault case before she took her own life

Two serving army officers are facing a court-martial over their handling of a sexual assault case filed by a young soldier before he committed suicide.

Jaysley Beck, 19, was found dead at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire on December 15, 2021, after complaining about her male colleague’s behaviour.

The inquest into Gunner’s death heard she made a report about former Battery Sergeant Major Michael Webber, who pinned her down and tried to kiss her during a training exercise on Thorney Island, near Emsworth in Hampshire, in July 2021.

Webber was sentenced to six months in prison for sexual assault after the investigation into his death in October found that he “played a role beyond a minimal contribution to his death.”

The army said it was ‘deeply saddened’ by the failures revealed in the investigation.

And now the Service Prosecutor’s Office has named two officers in the chain of command: Major James Hook and Colonel Samantha Shepherd.

Both were aware of his complaint before he tragically committed suicide.

Ms Beck’s family had written to Army Commander General Sir Roly Walker demanding further action against both officers.

Ms Beck prepared a report on former Battery Sergeant Michael Webber, who tried to pin and kiss her during a training exercise on Thorney Island.

Senior officer Colonel Samantha Shepherd (pictured), based at Thorney Island, will be court-martialed

Colonel Shepherd, the senior officer at Thorney Island, claimed the allegation against Ms Beck was “unwanted attention, inappropriate touching” rather than sexual assault.

He told the inquest: ‘I know now that this constituted sexual assault but I didn’t know that at the time.’

The coroner said: ‘She went for a walk with Jaysley and Jaysley said Webber tried to kiss her and touched her leg.

‘He did not appreciate at the time that the allegations constituted a crime of sexual assault, but he appreciated it now.

‘He didn’t doubt for a moment what Jaysley said about what happened.

‘He treated the matter as a serious breach of discipline.’

In his evidence at the inquest, Colonel Shepherd ‘denied being party to a deliberate attempt to cover up the accusation in order to minimize it’.

“He had taken legal advice on the matter and followed that advice,” the coroner said.

‘However, he was of the view that it was entirely inappropriate to deal with the matter through minor administrative proceedings.

‘Colonel Shepherd’s instructions were that minor administrative action should be taken against Webber, somewhat contradicting his earlier statement that this was not appropriate.

‘Apparently classifying the complaint as suitable for minor administrative action was based on the assumption that there was no actual contact during Webber’s advances on Jaysley.

‘It was unclear how this important ingredient was left out of the mixture.

Ms Beck’s family had written to Army Commander General Sir Roly Walker demanding further action against both officers who face a court-martial.

The report into Gunner Beck’s death found that he did not have any mental health issues and did not seek benefits from anyone in the military.

‘It was Col’s Shepherd’s affidavit that the original draft of the details of the crime included the fact that Webber touched Jaysley’s leg, but this was excluded in the final draft.’

Major Hook said he had ‘suspicions’ that the young soldier may have made up the attack as an ‘excuse’ to get away from a team-building exercise.

At the inquest last year, Major Hook said Ms Beck told him Sergeant Webber had made a ‘pass’ at him and said: ‘I’ve been waiting for this moment and I saw the way you looked at me.’

He defended his decision not to immediately initiate disciplinary proceedings and denied trying to ‘protect’ Sergeant Webber.

The inquest heard Ms Beck spoke to Major Hook, who was organizing the training event at Thorney Island, the day after she was attacked by Webber.

Summing up the evidence, deputy coroner Nicholas Rheinberg said: ‘He asked Jaysley what outcome he wanted and he said he didn’t want anything bad to happen to Webber. He didn’t want anything to harm his career.

‘In his evidence at the inquest, Major Hook said that he could not reconcile Jaysley’s complaint with his wish that no action be taken against Webber.

‘He was of the view that Jaysley did not want to take part in this course.

‘In support of this view, he stated that the previous day he had volunteered to take a participant back to camp for welfare reasons and was now trying to give up the exercise.

‘He made Jaysley aware of the career consequences for him of Webber making the complaint.

Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck pictured on parade. He was found dead at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire in December 2021.

Michael Webber (pictured) was sentenced to six months in prison for sexual assault after an inquest into his death in October found he ‘played more than a minimal contribution to her death’.

‘He pointed out to her that there were no eyewitnesses to the incident.

‘He said he suspected the alleged assault was an excuse to enable Jaysley to avoid completing the course.

‘When asked to leave the course, Jaysley recorded that in a simultaneous WhatsApp message Major Hook stated that the course cost money, that he was in the British Army and that he had been paid to attend the course.

‘It is no surprise that Jaysley later told his friends that Major Hook had accused him of lying.’

In his evidence at the service inquiry, Major Hook said: ‘Initially I was conscious that this was something he had produced to create an excuse to get away from Thorney Island and the training which he had already made clear to me that he did not enjoy and did not really want to be a part of.’

The coroner added: ‘At least Major Hook knew at the time of the service inquest that Webber had admitted inappropriate behavior towards Jaysley, which makes it strange that he should even then have hinted at deception on Jaysley’s part.

‘Rather than investigate Jaysley’s complaint further, Major Hook emphasized the impact of the complaint on Webber’s career and the absence of any witnesses, and told Jaysley to think it over thoroughly before deciding what action to take.

‘Major Hook left it to Jaysley to decide how to proceed and then went out to continue activities.

‘On the balance of probabilities, I find that Major Hook did not inform anyone of Jaysley’s allegations until the cat was out of the bag.’

Gunner Beck with his family. The 19-year-old had a “really nice aura”, his mother said

The young woman joined the army at the age of 16, joining the Royal Artillery Regiment, headquartered in Larkhill.

In a statement, the Ministry of Defense said: ‘Following an investigation by the Defense Serious Crime Command, we can confirm that two individuals have been charged with offenses under Article 19 of the Armed Forces Act (conduct contrary to public order and service discipline).

‘As legal proceedings are ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment further.’

The Ministry of Defense launched a working group on violence against women and girls and established a serious crime command.

Ms Beck’s mother, Leighann McCready, said in a statement that she remained ‘very unhappy’ with parts of the Army’s response.

He said: ‘Following the investigation into our daughter’s death, we wrote to the Chief of Staff and pointed out the numerous flaws in the chain of command that led to her death.

‘As a result, he instructed us to raise our concerns with the police and today we are relieved to have finally reached the stage where two people have been charged.

‘It would not be right to comment further on this issue before the final cases are concluded.

‘But we can say that we are extremely unhappy with the reaction of other sections of the Army.

‘We were promised a new independent complaints process for service workers – especially young women who, like Jaysley, often have to deal with very difficult and challenging situations – we have heard nothing more about it and, as far as we can tell, young women are still not benefiting from it, almost a year after the inquest and over four years after Jaysley’s death.

‘We constantly feel like we have to push the Army to change, and it’s completely exhausting.’

Armed Forces Minister Al Carns said last year: ‘I think the Gunner Beck case is a terrible failure of the system.

‘I can tell you that there have been a lot of changes in the last few years; ‘Last year we made a really proactive move to create the right systems so that no woman feels alone in defense again.’