Over one in 10 teenage girls in the Armed Forces claim they have been sexually assaulted or raped by instructors and fellow troops.
The shock figure emerged after the Ministry of Defence admitted 47 recruits under 18 – most of them female – complained of being attacked last year.
Some alleged victims were at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, North Yorks, where recruits aged 16 and 17 have basic training.
In answer to a parliamentary question, Armed Forces Minister Leo Docherty said: “Of the 47 victims in those statistics, 37 were female and of those cases one has been proven, four are ongoing, 11 have been transferred to civilian police. Twenty-two were based at the Army Foundation College.”
MoD figures show there were 290 girls aged under 18 in the Armed Forces at the time – meaning more than one in 10 teenage girl recruits say they have been sexually assaulted.
Last night, Colonel Philip Ingram, a former Army commanding officer and NATO planner, told the Sunday People : “These statistics are shocking. They highlight the most basic of failures in command at a number of different levels and yet it takes a parliamentary question to get the information into the public domain.”
A woman soldier who is now a lance corporal has told the Sunday People: “When I went through recruit training I was constantly harassed by two instructors who wanted to have sex with me. It was all done in a jokey ‘it’s only banter’ way but the message was clear. I made it pretty clear straight away I wasn’t interested.
“There was a complaints procedure but very few people complained as they didn’t want to be labeled as troublemakers.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “Sexual assault or harassment has no place in the Armed Forces and all allegations are taken seriously and investigated by the service police. We continue to improve reporting mechanisms.”
