Senior Army officer who 'let down' teen soldier who took her own life after sexual assault cleared by court
Colonel Samantha Shepherd was on trial at the Military Court Centre at Catterick Garrison, in North Yorkshire, alongside Major James Hook, with both officers accused of “conduct prejudicial to good order and service discipline”.
A senior Army officer has been cleared by a court martial of failing to deal properly with allegations made by a teenage soldier who took her own life five months later.
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Colonel Samantha Shepherd was on trial at the Military Court Centre at Catterick Garrison, in North Yorkshire, alongside Major James Hook, with both officers accused of “conduct prejudicial to good order and service discipline”.
Prosecutors said on Tuesday that both senior officers “let down” Gunner Jaysley 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.
The court martial board heard how Gunner Beck told both officers about behaviour towards her by Warrant Officer Michael Webber at a social event during the exercise.
Prosecutors said the young soldier “told each of them enough to understand that she may been sexually assaulted”.
Gunner Beck, 19, was found hanged in her barracks in Larkhill Camp, Wiltshire, in December 2021.
On Wednesday, Assistant Judge Advocate General Edward Legard told the board: “The Crown has concluded that there is insufficient evidence upon which you can safely convict Colonel Shepherd of the charge she faces.”
The board, which consists of an Air Commodore, a Royal Navy captain and an Army colonel, formally returned a not guilty verdict, on the directions of the judge, and Col Shepherd left the court.
The trial of Maj Hook continues.
Former senior non-commissioned officer Webber, 43, was jailed for six months by a military court last year after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting Gunner Beck five months before her death.
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An inquest into Gunner Beck’s death, and the court martial of Webber, heard he had engaged the young recruit in a drinking game before touching her thigh and trying to kiss her.
Gunner Beck pushed Webber – then a battery sergeant major in the Royal Artillery – away and spent the night locked in her car before making a complaint to her superiors in the morning.
But the incident was not reported to police and Webber wrote a letter of apology to Gunner Beck.
He was later promoted.
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