Soldiers ‘dropped prisoners in Afghanistan from forklift for fun’, inquiry told

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Monica Grenfell gave the damning evidence in the Afghanistan Inquiry after responding to the chairman’s call for information for assistance in the probe into alleged murders in the country between 2010 and 2013.

Ms Grenfell, who worked with the UKSF between 2015 and 2018 as a kitchen staff member and a storewoman, told the inquiry on Tuesday that she didn’t like the atmosphere at the UK military base.

The closed-door probe heard that she met a man who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, referred to only as Name3, before working in the UKSF, who told her the shocking revelations about prisoners being abused.

In her witness statement, she said: “I specifically recall him (Name3) telling me that he would put prisoners on a forklift, raise it up and drive very fast so that they fell off.

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“He said that he behaved in the same way in Afghanistan.”

Ms Grenfell told the inquiry she was “appalled” that the man “thought it was funny”.

“I mean, he wasn’t doing anything alone, but it was something they did for fun doing this and jamming on the brakes so they fell off,” the witness said.

She said she came across Name3 again when she started to work at the military base.

The inquiry heard the witness had previously described the atmosphere at the special forces camp as “coarse and feral”.

Giving evidence, she said she had “never been anywhere that was as bad as there.”

She added: “You felt that people had been let off the leash somehow, that they knew that, you know, like they wore their own clothes, the soldiers, I mean mostly, and you felt no one was really watching them and the language was just, I’ve never known the language like it.”

She added that there was “sexual banter” that “went on from the beginning of the day to the end”.

Ms Grenfell, a former journalist who retired in 2012, told the inquiry that in her role at the store people would take high-value items, and the thefts would be “issued off”.

She said when she reported that two items worth a total of £12,000 had been stolen, her line manager told her she was disruptive and later added that she believed those taking items would not have viewed it as theft, as there was a sense of entitlement among members of the UKSF.

Ms Grenfell said another colleague she had met at the military base said he had been disturbed by the culture in Afghanistan and that the people they worked with had “sort of gone wild”.

She told the inquiry: “We did actually have a conversation where he brought up the book Lord Of The Flies, and I’m sure people know that, where it was just a group of men really who were, he felt, threatened by them.

“I think he was quite a sensitive soul and indeed we talked a bit about the fact that I found, as I have said earlier here today, it difficult and feral and we talked about whether that was us.”

The probe, which is examining allegations of unlawful killings by UK special forces during operations in the country between 2010 and 2013, as well as claims of a subsequent cover-up, also heard from whistleblower Christopher Green, who served in Afghanistan in 2012.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “The Government is fully committed to supporting the Independent Inquiry relating to Afghanistan as it continues its work, and we are hugely grateful to all former and current Defence employees who have so far given evidence.”

“We also remain committed to providing the support that our Special Forces deserve, whilst maintaining the transparency and accountability that the British people rightly expect from their armed forces.”

“It’s right that we allow the Inquiry to complete its important work before responding in full.”

The inquiry continues.