Navy base probe after ‘sex attacks'

Claims of rape & harassment

- Sean Rayment

THE Royal Navy launched a toplevel inquiry into the running of one its most secretive bases after claims of rape and sexual misconduct by British sailors.

The Sunday People has learned a US Navy sailor was allegedly raped, a second US servicewoman was sexually assaulted and a third sexually harassed by Royal Navy personnel.

But a probe into the base, on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, was only launched by Navy chief Admiral Tony Radakin after a whistleblower wrote to him alleging leadership failures.

The 10-week inquiry, concluded last month, also unearthed claims of sexual assault, racist bullying, harassment and discrimination against women.

In the letter, Marine John Lewis wrote of a series of incidents between July 2019 and January 2020 he felt would harm the Navy’s reputation.