Jaysley Beck: Army officers 'let down' soldier with sexual assault 'deliberately misreported', court heard

A teenage soldier was “let down” by two officers when she “told each of them enough to understand that she may have been sexually assaulted” five months before she took her own life, prosecutors have told a court martial.

Gunner Jaysley Beck, 19, died in December 2021 months after she was sexually assaulted by a senior colleague at a base on Thorney Island near Emsworth.

On Tuesday (September 15), Colonel Samantha Shepherd and Major James Hook appeared at the Military Court Centre at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire. They’re accused of “conduct prejudicial to good order and service discipline”.

Commander Paul Patterson, prosecuting, told the board how both senior officers “let down” Gunner Beck when she told them about an incident which happened on a Royal Artillery adventure training exercise on Thorney Island, in Chichester Harbour, in July 2021. He said Beck told both officers about behaviour towards her by Warrant Officer Michael Webber at a social event during the exercise.

He said: “The prosecution case is that she told each of them about an incident that had happened” and “she told each of them enough to understand that she may been sexually assaulted”.

The prosecutor said Hook, who was a captain at the time and was running the exercise, did not treat the information he was given by Gunner Beck “in a manner consistent with its seriousness” and Shepherd “deliberately misreported what she had been told”. In his opening statement, the prosecutor said that WO Webber, Gnr Beck and Lance Corporal Drew Tudor were drinking together until the early hours of the morning of July 13.

The following morning L/Cpl Tudor found Gnr Beck asleep in her car and she told him about what happened with WO Webber. Cdr Patterson said the lance corporal fetched Hook who got in the car and Gunner Beck repeated what she had said.

The prosecutor said Hook and Gnr Beck then went on a walk and the officer gave the teenager until noon to decide whether she wanted to make a complaint. Cdr Patterson said of Hook’s actions that “far from empowering her (Gunner Beck), this could be seen as leaning on her”. He said Hook later phoned a more senior officer back at the barracks to say WO Webber had “made a pass” at Gnr Beck.

Cdr Patterson said Shepherd discussed the incident later with Gnr Beck, but then deliberately failed to pass on information to Captain Mae King – the adjutant at the 14 Regiment Royal Artillery, which is responsible for discipline – that the young soldier alleged WO Webber had touched her, or attempted to touch her. Cdr Patterson said Shepherd failed to mention the touching, or attempted touching allegation even when questioned by the captain, saying there was “no contact”.

The prosecutor said the colonel “edited the information” when she “should have told the truth”. He added: “She knew this would go to the service police.”

In a prepared statement given to military police, Shepherd said she believed she had disclosed the touching allegation to Captain King but could not be sure, Mr Patterson said. Hook and Shepherd, who sat with their barristers in the court room, have each pleaded not guilty to a charge of conduct prejudicial to good order and service discipline.

The allegation against Shepherd is that “on a date in July 2021, you misreported what you had been told by Jaysley Beck on Jul 13, 2021, to Mae King”. The allegation against Hook is that “on July 13, 2021 you did not treat information passed to yourself by Jaysley Beck in a manner consistent with its seriousness”.

L/Cpl Tudor, who worked with Gnr Beck on the Corp Engagement Team (CET), said she was “distressed” and “visibly shaken” when he found her in her car the morning after the incident. He told the hearing he had been drinking at a social event the night before and went to bed at about 3am.

He said Gnr Beck and WO Webber were still up, but there was “no inkling that anything was going on”. The next morning, Gnr Beck was not in her accommodation and he found her asleep in her car, the hearing was told.

L/Cpl Tudor said: “When she woke up I spoke to her. She was immediately quite distressed, she cried and she just seemed visibly shaken. She explained (Webber) had tried something on with her, I don’t have the exact details of what she specifically said.”

He told the hearing: “I wanted to pass this on because this was something that clearly should not have taken place.” L/Cpl Tudor said Gunner Beck agreed to let him pass it up the chain of command, and he told Major Hook that “something had happened”.

He said the three of them had a conversation in Gnr Beck’s car, where she repeated what she had told him to Major Hook, who was then a captain. L/Cpl Tudor said the first time he was asked about the incident after that was at a service inquiry in 2022. He told the court martial he could not remember now whether Gunner Beck had said Webber touched, or tried to touch her.

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A statement from Major Richard Lupton, who was Gunner Beck’s senior line manager, said he was not on the retreat but was told by Major Hook that an incident of “inappropriate behaviour had been reported”. He said: “My understanding was that Gunner Beck did not want to take this matter public, and to keep it discreet as much as possible. She chose the option of a letter of apology.”

Major Lupton’s statement said he delivered the letter from Webber to Gnr Beck and she was “very content with what had been written”. Captain King, who is now a major, told the court how Shepherd came to see her and told her about an incident “where Mr Webber had made an inappropriate pass at Gunner Beck”.

Giving evidence, Major King said the colonel told her: “Mr Webber leaned forward in an attempt to kiss Gunner Beck, and that Gunner Beck had leant back so that the kiss had not occurred. And that, following this, Mr Webber had said something along the lines of ‘do you not fancy it?’, and that Gunner Beck had said that she didn’t and had left the bar.”

Major King said: “I confirmed that he hadn’t kissed her, that he hadn’t touched her and it had been an attempt as opposed to an act.” The major outlined a range of consultations she made, including with the Royal Military Police (RMP), before making a recommendation to Shepherd about a course of action based on what the colonel had told her.

She said she was told by the RMP that the incident was “not a crime” because “there was no touching”. An inquest into her death found that various failings contributed to her death.

Proceedings are ongoing.