Ex-sergeant major jailed for sex assault on soldier

A FORMER senior noncommissioned army officer who sexually assaulted a teenage soldier who later took her own life has been sentenced to six months in prison.

- CLAIRE HAYHURST

> Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck took her own life. Inset, Jaysley's mother Leighann McCready speaking to the media outside Bulford Court Martial Centre in Salisbury yesterday

Warrant Officer Michael Webber, 43, previously pleaded guilty to the attack on Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck, 19, during a stay at Thorney Island, near Emsworth in Hampshire, in July 2021.

He appeared before Bulford Military Court Centre US and was sentenced by the Judge Advocate General Alan Large and a military board.

During the incident, Webber engaged Gunner Beck in a drinking game called Last Man Standing before touching her thigh and trying to kiss her.

Gunner Beck pushed Webber, then a 39-year-old battery sergeant major, away and spent the night locked in her car before making a complaint to her superiors in the morning.

However, the incident was not reported to police and Webber wrote a letter of apology to Gunner Beck, from Cumbria.

She was found hanged in her room at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire at about 4pm on December 15, 2021 ~ five months after the incident.

At the conclusion of her inquest in February 2025, Assistant Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg ruled that the army’s failure to take appropriate action made a “more than minimal” contribution to her death.

Judge Large told Webber: “At some point in the early hours of July 13, you told Gunner Beck she was beautiful, you put your hand on the back of her head, you leant in to kiss her and you touched her thigh.