A senior Army officer “always believed” a teenage soldier who made allegations about inappropriate behaviour by a superior five months before taking her own life, her lawyer told a judge as she was cleared of deliberately misreporting what she had been told.
A barrister for Colonel Samantha Shepherd said she took Gunner Jaysley Beck’s complaint seriously, “listened to her and cared”, as prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence for her trial to continue at the Military Court Centre at Catterick Garrison, in North Yorkshire, on Wednesday.
Col Shepherd had been on trial at the Military Court Centre at Catterick Garrison, in North Yorkshire, alongside Major James Hook, with both officers accused of “conduct prejudicial to good order and service discipline”.
Prosecutors said on Tuesday that Gunner Beck told both defendants about an incident which happened on a Royal Artillery adventure training exercise on Thorney Island, in Chichester Harbour, in July 2021.
The court martial board heard how Gunner Beck told both officers about behaviour towards her by Warrant Officer Michael Webber at a social event during the exercise.
Prosecutors said the young soldier “told each of them enough to understand that she may have been sexually assaulted”.
The board of three senior military officers heard how Gunner Beck, 19, died in December 2021.
On Wednesday, Assistant Judge Advocate General Edward Legard told the board: “The Crown has concluded that there is insufficient evidence upon which you can safely convict Colonel Shepherd of the charge she faces.”
The board, which consists of an Air Commodore, a Royal Navy captain and an Army colonel, formally returned a not guilty verdict, on the directions of the judge, and Col Shepherd left the court.
Watched from the public gallery by Gunner Beck’s mother, Leighann McCready, Col Shepherd’s barrister Derek Johashen told the judge: “Colonel Shepherd remains devastated by Gunner Beck’s passing.
“Colonel Shepherd is relieved by the decision.
“But it’s not about her.”
Mr Johashen said his client fully understood the impact on Gunner Beck’s family of the events of the last four or five years.
He said: “Her thoughts remain with them, and always will.
“She always believed Gunner Beck, took her complaint seriously, listened to her and cared.”
The court martial heard how Gunner Beck told Col Shepherd what happened with Warrant Officer Webber and the senior officer then went to see Captain Mae King – an officer whose role it was to advise on disciplinary matters in the Royal Artillery.
The allegation against Col Shepherd was that she deliberately failed to mention to Captain King that the teenager had alleged the warrant officer had touched her, or tried to touch her.
Captain King, who is now a major, was asked questions about what Col Shepherd told her when she gave evidence at the court martial on Tuesday.
The trial of Hook continues.
Prosecutor Commander Paul Patterson has told the board that the allegation against Hook, who was a captain at the time and was running the exercise, did not treat the information he was given by Gunner Beck “in a manner consistent with its seriousness”.
In his opening statement, the prosecutor said that Warrant Officer Webber, Gunner Beck and Lance Corporal Drew Tudor were drinking together until the early hours of the morning of July 13.
The following morning Lance Corporal Tudor found Gunner Beck asleep in her car and she told him about what happened with Warrant Officer Webber.
Commander Patterson said the lance corporal fetched Hook, who got in the car and Gunner Beck repeated what she had said.
The prosecutor said Hook and Gunner Beck then went on a walk, and the officer gave the teenager until noon to decide whether she wanted to make a complaint.
He said Hook later phoned a more senior officer back at the barracks to say Warrant Office Webber had “made a pass” at Gunner Beck.
