Ex-sergeant major jailed for sex attack on soldier

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

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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 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.