A former sergeant major has admitted to sexually assaulting a teenage female solider who took her own life in 2021.
Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck was found dead at the barracks of her army base in Wiltshire, UK, in December 2021 after raising a complaint about the behavior of a colleague.
She was just 19 years old.
Gunner Beck had filed a complaint against Battery Sergeant Major Michael Webber in July 2021 following an adventure training exercise in Hampshire.
The teenager alleged the officer grabbed her leg and tried to kiss her, with an inquest into Gunner Beck’s death earlier this year finding that the army’s handling of the incident ‘more than a minimal contributory part in her death’.
Webber pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault at a pre-trial hearing on Friday (September 5), and is now awaiting sentencing.
Following the plea, Gunner Beck’s mother, Leighann McCready, said in a statement: “We are relieved that Michael Webber has admitted his guilt and not put us through the trauma of yet more legal proceedings, but nothing can undo the devastating loss of our beautiful daughter Jaysley.”
Emma Norton, the solicitor acting on behalf of Gunner Beck’s family, added: “What an enormous difference it would have made if the Army and its chain of command had just listened to Jaysley when she first told them about the assault and reported it to the police, instead of trying to persuade her it wasn’t that serious.”
Major Robert Ronz was assigned to deal with the original complaint, but told the inquest he felt the incident fell into ‘minor sanction territory’ at the time, so decided against a formal investigation.
During the hearing, he said he was ‘unaware of any physical contact’ due to the ‘miscommunication’ through the chain of command.
The outcome could have been different if Ronz had been aware, he explained.
A service inquiry report published in October 2023 described how Gunner Beck had endured ‘an intense period of unwelcome behavior’ and said it was ‘almost certain this was a causal factor’ in death.
The inquest also heard Gunner Beck received thousands of messages from another senior colleague, Bombardier Ryan Mason, who reportedly caused the teen to feel ‘trapped’ and ‘not safe’ at work, Sky News reports.
The former solider became ‘freaked out’ by her ‘obsessive’ and ‘psychotic’ boss’ behavior, after he sent her more than 4,600 messages confessing feelings for her.