Jaysley Beck: Ex-Army officer jailed for sexually assaulting soldier at Thorney Island base before suicide

Warrant Officer Michael Webber, 43, has been sentenced to six months in prison previously pleading guilty to the attack on Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck. The assault happened while the 19-year-old was staying on Thorney Island, near Emsworth, in July 2021.

Webber was sentenced at Bulford Military Court Centre in Wiltshire today, and slammed Britain's top military judge for molesting Gunner Beck at an Army training event. The sex attack on her “shattered her faith in the system” as her complaint to Army bosses was ignored, it was heard.

Webber, a Battery Sergeant Major who received a promotion, received only “minor administrative action” and even got a promotion, leaving Gnr Beck feeling “powerless and betrayed”. The late soldier's parents told a military court that their daughter “changed” after she was made to accept a letter of apology from him. Gnr Beck was “scared” of Webber after he pinned her down and tried to kiss her at an Army training event and she slept in her car.

Her body was found dead in her room at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire on December 15, 2021. As previously reported in The News, Webber declined to answer questions during her inquest at Salisbury Coroner’s Court earlier this year. Nicholas Rheinberg, assistant coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, deemed her death to be a suicide, partly caused by the Army’s failure to respond to the complaints appropriately.

The inquest heard Gnr Beck was also hounded by her “possessive and psychotic” boss Bombardier Ryan Mason, who sent her over 4,600 messages, in two months. At Webber’s sentencing, Gnr Beck' mother, Leighann McCready, gave an emotional statement in court.

She said: "She had just just turned 19 and was a teenager full of life and laughter. She had lots of plans for the future and she trusted those around her to protect her and after this that had gone. She called me the morning after it happened and I could tell something was wrong. She had been very scared of Mr Webber, so much so she had taken the decision to lock herself in her car.

"She felt powerless and betrayed. She then found out he had been promoted. 'I got a letter and he got a promotion', she said. She told me she had been made to accept a letter of apology. That assault shattered her faith in the system that was supposed to look after her. Since I lost her, my life has turned upside down."

Ms McCready said she has left Gnr Beck's bedroom as she left it. Many of the boxes from her barracks' room remain unopened - one of which contains the item with which she ended her life.

Anthony Beck, Gnr Beck's father, said: "To say we were close doesn't come close. What happened made me sick to my stomach. I could see in her eyes what he did changed her." It was heard that Mr Beck suffered a heart attack in the months after his daughter died.

Commodore James Farrant, prosecuting, said on July 2021 that Webber made a sexual advance towards her following a night of drinking at Thorney Island - leaving her so scared that she slept in her car. Gnr Beck filed a complaint the next day.

Cdre Farrant: "Both of them stayed up in the bar late drinking and they were the last two people in the bar. In the early hours Webber told her that she beautiful. He put his hand on the back of her head and tried to kiss her and touched her thigh. She told him to stop and that he should go to bed however he continued so far that she did not feel safe from him.

"She went to hide in the toilets and stood on the toilet. She then slept in her car rather than return to her accommodation. She made a report to a number of people including her mum and a friend and Webber was interviewed about his conduct. He admitted that he had attempted to kiss her and that behaviour was unacceptable. A conduct report in June 2023 found that she had been subject to inappropriate behaviours to a person senior to her.

“When investigated by Wiltshire Police he answered no comment to all questions. It was later found that there had been a failure on her behalf to deal with her complaint of sexual assault."

Matthew Scott, defending, said: "This is an utterly tragic case and there is nothing I could say that could possibly begin to diminish the extent of the tragedy. Nobody outside the family has felt tragedy in this case more than the defendant. It is not his fault the army, prosecution or police did not proceed more formally against him. He didn't pretend as some may have done, that nothing had happened. He didn't hide behind the fact it happened in an empty bar with no other witnesses."

Mr Scott said Webber is divorced and no longer sees his 16-year-old daughter - to whom he pays child support. He now works as a lorry driver and receives a £1,200 military pension. He has an Afghanistan medal, a long service medal, and Jubilee medal. Webber pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault.

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Judge Advocate General Alan Large - Britain's top military judge - said: "Gnr Beck's family have today said how their lives have been greatly affected. No sentence which we can pass upon Mr Webber today will bring their daughter back or begin to fill the gap that she has left behind. We have to pass a sentence which both reflects the offending and which takes full account of the impact of the criminal behaviour in the case on Gnr Beck and her family.

“You were high in the scale of authority. Gnr Beck was at the lower end of the scale. Your behaviour had an effect on morale of those within His Majesty's British Army. The level of trust was completely breached to such an extent that she felt she had to sleep in her car. An aggravating factor is that alcohol was involved and that played a real part in your decision to kiss Gnr Beck. You had no previous convictions and have shown remorse and have had exemplary conduct within your military career.

“This behaviour was out of character. We have to consider whether the sentence can be suspended. We do not consider that it can. We are satisfied that the seriousness of the offence means that appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody. We cannot dismiss you because you have already left the Army. However we consider that had you been dealt with earlier you would have been reduced to the ranks and if we properly do so, we order that you are reduced to the ranks today."

Webber will serve half of his sentence in the community. He will be placed on the sex offenders register for seven years.