LONDON: A former British Army senior officer was sentenced to six months in prison on Friday for sexually assaulting a young woman soldier who later died by suicide.&nbsp;Jaysley Beck, 19, had complained to superiors in July 2021 that Michael Webber, then a battery sergeant major, had sexually assaulted her.&nbsp;Webber, now 43, later wrote Beck an apology letter, but her complaint was not taken forward or reported to police.&nbsp;Royal Artillery Gunner Beck was found hanged in her room at the army camp in December 2021. The British army apologized earlier this year after a coroner condemned its handling of the complaint.&nbsp;The army&rsquo;s failure to take sufficient action made a &ldquo;more than minimal&rdquo; contribution to Beck&rsquo;s death, an inquest into her death concluded this year.&nbsp;The inquest was also told that Beck had been subjected to intense harassment from a different superior in the months between the incident and her death.&nbsp;&ldquo;Your career continued completely unaffected and you were in due course promoted,&rdquo; Judge Alan Large told Webber, handing down the sentence at a military court in southern England.&nbsp;Webber will spend half his sentence in custody &mdash; so three months &mdash; and be placed on the sex offenders&rsquo; register for seven years, the judge said.&nbsp;&ldquo;Today&rsquo;s sentencing does not diminish the profound loss felt by her family, friends and the wider community, but it does represent an important step on the journey to justice,&rdquo; veterans minister Louise Sandher-Jones said in a statement Friday.&nbsp;A spokesperson told reporters after the sentencing that the army was &ldquo;profoundly sorry for the failings.&rdquo;&nbsp;But Beck&rsquo;s mother, Leighann McCready, said the army statement was &ldquo;empty words,&rdquo; and that &ldquo;no sentence will be enough&rdquo; to compensate for the loss of her daughter, according to the BBC.

United Kingdom

In London, former British Army officer Michael Webber received a six-month sentence for sexually assaulting 19-year-old soldier Jaysley Beck, whose complaint was mishandled before she died by suicide, prompting apologies and criticism of army failings.

Articles tagged with "British Army"

British army ex-officer jailed for soldier’s sexual assault

British army ex-officer jailed for soldier’s sexual assault