The British Army has released a statement after a coroner concluded the inquest into the death of Gunner Jaysley-Louise Beck of 47 Regiment Royal Artillery, who died in Larkhill on 15 December 2021.
Assistant Coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, Mr Nicholas Rheinberg, delivered a verdict of suicide, prompting Brigadier Melissa Emmett, Head of Army Personnel Services Group, to extend “the Army’s deepest condolences to Jaysley’s family and friends” and offer “sincerest apologies for the failings that the Coroner has identified during this inquest; we should have done so much more to support and protect her.”
The statement describes Gunner Beck as “exactly the kind of person the Army needs,” noting that she was excelling in her work and was highly regarded by those around her.
The Army points to newly introduced “clear and unequivocal policies to state that there will be Zero Tolerance to unacceptable sexual behaviours,” which are intended to be embedded across its culture, policies, and practices.
Brigadier Emmett acknowledged that “there is more work to do,” explaining that the inquest highlighted the need for “lasting and effective change.”
She also expressed hope that forthcoming reforms will “give service personnel the confidence they need to report sexual offences and inappropriate behaviours, knowing that they will be listened to.”
The statement concludes by paying tribute to the fortitude shown by Gunner Beck’s family throughout the proceedings and praising their “remarkable” support for the Service Inquiry and the inquest process.
It sounds really shocking what this young girl went through, I think we really need to look long and hard at this. We really need to consider the merits and risks of putting girls at the age of 18 into mixed army units as well as the way the army handled such situations.
It will have been the talk of the camp.
The bigger issue is why nobody intervened.
I get the people get obsessed with each other and usually a mate taps on the shoulder and says ‘get a grip’ or in this case an officer should have had an advisory ‘chat’ and if that didn’t work RMP should have been involved.
Problem is atleast two men were involved separately. It’s a system failure for sure but from gourd accounts it’s not a lone incident. One women described being a gold fish in a shark tank.
I just can’t see there is a safe way to mix such young women in these military units and ensure they are safe.
Often it is. But sadly, sometimes it isn’t. If there’s a scenario where the victim doesn’t feel like they can speak out (yes sometimes the victim is male), and the perpetrators are smart enough to keep their mouths shut, significant abuse can occur even in a close knit camp.
You are right. Also, in the real world people can often separate themselves from abusive people or cultural environments – literally create distance – and move on. But this is often not possible within the workplace, especially one where people share workplace accommodation and a wider social life. This creates a feeling of people being stuck in the problem, and incapable of moving on. And, because their whole life is inside the workplace (with the fear of being ridiculed, making powerful enemies, peer pressure, conformity, etc) they feel unable to speak out. Usually the people harassing others know how to coldly play the system, while the people being harassed are not in an emotional state to defend themselves optimally (which is used to characterise them as an unreliable witness).
It actually is possible within the context of the armed forces. The Army is a pretty big place and I’ve seen it before where a bullying (in this particular case male on male bullying) resulted in the army moving individuals into different PID’s so that they could do just that, literally create distance and move on. Even within a Battalion/Regiment your social life tends to be your Company or Squadron. The bigger issue is, as you identified, the feeling of being unable to speak up.
No we can’t put this toothpaste back in the tube. Women are and should be part of the Army and every other military unit for that matter.
At the end of the day every interaction between individuals needs to be recorded in the interests of all parties. So that everyone has the ability to say – look such and such was not professional (resulting in the ability to pull up the recording and check it which in itself will deter problems). It also gives the other party the ability to protect themselves from malicious claims.
Mobile phones seem to be part of life in the military – which is fine however their content needs to be locked down and secured. Everyday use of Whatsapp (for example) is asking for trouble.
Amazing how young women have pushed for being allowed to serve in what previously where single sex units, only for a sexist dinosaur to speak on their behalf and say they should be segregated out of jobs again….
Jim,
In the era of the WRAC, many, but not all, females served in women-only (ie WRAC) units. The WRAC was disbanded in 1992. All females from then served in what you call ‘mixed units’.
Do you want to wind the clock back over 30 years?
Absolutely horrendous behaviour the poor woman experienced.
There is zero excuse for it.
If men and women cant co-exist together in the British Army, RN, RAF then its the beginning of the end!
And correct ..we need a massive change in the way our armed forces are run.. its ideology, structure, equipment
Our armed forces are looking like a complete joke at the moment…
Disgraceful !!!
If you mix young men and women in any environment like this you’re always going to get these problems. These men are scum bags for sure and 100% to blame but how can you possibly filter the military to make sure such people are not serving.
The only thing I can see is reverting back to single sex units and professions. Obviously that’s not PC but it worked for a long time.
That last bit? Yeah that’s a terrible idea.
It sounds intuitive, but when you consider how it creates an environment where men do not view women as equals, and do not interact with them like normal human beings, it creates an incredibly toxic environment (and I’d argue a lot of the issues we see with young men not being able to keep it in their pants is a direct result of single sex schools and professions that dominated this country for generations).
Basically: Creating environments where men and women only interact if they’re looking for sex is bad juju and creates people that are unable to view the other gender as anything other than sex objects.
Outside the military I very much agree with you, have you ever served before? I was in the TA in mixed units and you can see the problem of young people, people with command authority and alcohol all sharing not just jobs but accommodation and lives.
It’s an immensely dangerous environment for anyone too be in much less an 18 year old girl. We can talk about culture change until the cows come home but you never going to get to that point especially in the armed forces where we can say it’s safe.
On the flip side on a cold economic calculus what’s the benefit of mixed sex units? Are they more or less combat effective. That’s all we should care about, we need to start gearing up for war. No one is saying women can’t serve, they can and they should. It’s mixed sex units that are the issue.
If we’re going to play the “have you served game” I’m going to go with “I’m not taking a STAB’s opinion on what regular units should operate like.” Come back when you’ve actually soldiered.
Or maybe we can move past the gate keeping and focus on the facts.
Soldiering is an immensly dangerous job for anyone, regardless of age or gender. Whether you are 18, 50, a man or a “girl” a 155 round is going to turn you into pink mist. It’s kind of pathetic that you’re equating “not raping your colleges” with “Artillery fire kills people.” If you can’t trust your blokes not to rape their colleges, then how can you trust them not to commit warcrimes in theatre?
Again, mixed sex units are not an issue. They’ve served perfectly fine in combat, and as I said, if you work with and are around women on a daily basis you tend to end up with young men who actually can be around women, instead of just viewing them as sex objects. But you seem a particularly sexist type, probably the same kind of dinosaur who cried when women where allowed into the “boys club” of the infantry.
I don’t see this as a male thing per se. When I was on my A1 in Catterick the young ladies who were doing their basic trade training were all over us young NCO’s. We were generally fitter, a little wiser, more experienced and had more money. I dated a young lady for most of my 3 month course. We were not instructors so did not abuse our “positions of power” but I won’t deny that a little bit of “awe” might have been involved. Most of the time it works out fine. Look how many WRAC’s married serving soldiers, but just like in civilian life there are turds. I think the biggest contributor when there is a problem like is that at the end of the day we can’t go home, but continue to circulate and interact with each other in the evening and at the weekends. You can’t distance yourself from it. This compounds the problem. Other than continuing education I don’t think it can be eradicated. Not saying this should be excused, just saying that when young women and men are in close proximity like that, there will be relationships, and some of them don’t work out too well.
The death of this young woman is a disgrace. Those involved should hang their heads in shame.
This has really made me angry. Here was a young woman who joined up to serve her country. She should have been enjoying the fruits of that service. Instead she was harassed and let down by the very people who should have been looking out for her, to the point of taking her life. The torment she must have gone through to a point where she could only find sanctuary in death is a applauding.
What were the senior NCOs doing?
The SNCOs are the backbone of any unit.
Promoting one of the guys that was responsible while sweeping it under the rug. The senior female NCO was trying to get her to have a dialogue with the guy stalking her because they thought that would make her feel better.