The head of the Royal Navy has ordered an investigation into “abhorrent” allegations of inappropriate behaviour in the submarine service and declared that sexual assault and harassment has no place in the fleet.
It follows whistleblowers making harrowing allegations about misogyny, and bullying and sexual harassment of female members.
According to the Daily Mail, the abuse took place in the submarine service for more than a decade after the branch lifted its ban on female recruits in 2011.
One of the allegations is of submariners compiling a “crush depth rape list”, in which women were ranked in the order they should be raped in a catastrophic event.
Senior officers have been accused of making sexualised gestures and comments towards female personnel they command. Women also reported being screamed at and hit with clipboards, the newspaper said.
Adm Sir Ben Key, the first sea lord and chief of the naval staff, wrote on Twitter that anyone found culpable would be held to account regardless of rank.
“I am deeply disturbed to hear of allegations of inappropriate behaviour in the submarine service and I want to reassure our people, and anyone who is reading this, that any activity which falls short of the highest of standards the Royal Navy sets itself is totally unacceptable and not a true reflection of what service life should be,” he said.
“These allegations are abhorrent. Sexual assault and harassment has no place in the Royal Navy and will not be tolerated.
“I have directed my senior team to investigate these allegations thoroughly. Anyone who is found culpable will be held accountable for their actions regardless of their rank or status.”
The Ministry of Defence said that while most Royal Navy personnel had rewarding careers, the experiences of some, predominantly women, had been affected by inappropriate sexualised behaviour.
The MoD said it accepted more needed to be done and that it was improving reporting mechanisms for sexual offences. In July, Britain’s armed forces introduced a ban on the use of sex workers abroad for the first time, as part of an attempt to stamp out sexual exploitation and abuse across the military.
Personnel found to have engaged in what the MoD described as “transactional sex” faced possible dismissal. It was the first time a consistent prohibition across all three services – navy, air force and army – was introduced.
The former rear admiral Chris Parry told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme there should be “zero tolerance” of sexual harassment.
“I am afraid some of the sexualised behaviour that we see in normal working places is transferred to submarines as you would expect, and of course in a compressed environment everything becomes exaggerated.”
He added: “When I was leading a ship I said: ‘The defence of this country is more important than your sex drive and I will take very seriously any attempt to impose any assault or banter on anyone else’.
“It’s about leadership but it’s very difficult when you are living cheek by jowl with everybody and you don’t have a mature society putting people into these submarines.”
Emma Norton, the director of the Centre for Military Justice, a charity that gives legal aid to victims of harassment, told Sky News that only about 10% of women who experienced serious bullying and harassment in the service made a formal complaint because “they have no faith that they’ll get any kind of justice or a fair hearing”.
Norton said the navy had failed to act on repeated recommendations for greater independent oversight into such complaints.
