ARMY SEXUAL ABUSE
Privates on parade
WOMEN in the British Army are dealing with an onslaught of sexual harassment, including predatory behaviour from superior officers, sexual assaults and “nocturnal door-knocking” from fellow soldiers in mixed barracks, yet another report confirms.
It’s nearly 30 years since the death of teenage recruit Cheryl James in the “sexualised, misogynistic and toxic” environment of Deepcut barracks (Eyes passim) but far too little has changed. The latest internal audit of army culture by Prof Anthony King of Warwick University was publicly announced in 2021 by Gen Sir Mark Carleton-Smith after a Commons defence committee report found that almost two thirds of women who gave evidence had experienced bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination while serving in the armed forces.