Jaysley’s mum says women ought not join Army

YOUNG women should not join the Army, the mother of a teenage soldier who took her own life after being sexually assaulted by a superior has said.

- CHRISTOPHER MCKEON

Leighann McCready said the armed forces had still not done enough to protect recruits after her daughter Jaysley Beck was found hanged in her barracks in Larkhill Camp, Wiltshire, in 2021.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Evidence has shown through our own daughter that the protection is not there.

“And until policies are properly changed, | wouldn’t recommend anybody joining the Army because they protect themselves and not the soldiers, and that’s what happened to our daughter Jaysley.

“Army recruits are such a vulnerable age and when they first join up, as females, in such a minority surrounded by lots of men.”

Her comments came the day after a former senior non-commissioned officer, 43-year-old Michael Webber, was jailed for six months by a military court after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting Gunner Beck five months before her death.

Then a battery sergeant major in the Royal Artillery, Webber had engaged Gunner Beck in a drinking game before touching her thigh and trying to kiss her.