Jaysley Beck inquest: Officer should have been 'removed from post while investigated', inquest hears

The senior officer accused of pinning down and attempting to kiss a teenage soldier before she died should have been removed from his post while being investigated, an inquest has heard.

Battery Sergeant Major Michael Webber wrote a letter apologise to Gunner Jaysley Beck, 19, after allegedly grabbing her leg and trying to kiss her.

Five months later Gunner Beck was found dead in her room at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire.

She had made a complaint about the officer following an adventure training exercise in July 2021.

She claimed Battery Sergeant Major Webber told her he had been “waiting for a moment for them to be alone”, had engaged her in a drinking game called Last Man Standing before grabbing her leg and trying to kiss her.

Salisbury Coroner’s Court heard Gunner Beck pushed the senior officer away and left the room before spending the night in her car and making a complaint to her superiors the following morning.

Webber received minor administrative action and wrote a letter of apology to Gunner Beck.

Five months later, Gunner Beck was found dead in her room.

Bombardier George Young, a friend of Gunner Beck, told the inquest: “I don’t know what the conversation was surrounding getting an apology letter in the first place, but I was only a gunner at the time, but certainly now holding rank, I think that an apology letter shouldn’t even be offered in that situation.

“Why is that an acceptable outcome for that, especially with someone holding such a high rank?”

Bmdr Young said Gunner Beck told him that the complaint against the officer was “squashed”.

“He wasn’t removed from post or anything,” he said. “What I know about how the disciplinary system is supposed to work is, apology or not, that person should be removed from post while being investigated.”

The inquest has previously heard Gunner Beck received thousands of messages from another senior colleague, Bombardier Ryan Mason, whom she described as being “psychotic and possessive”.

“I believe from what she was telling me she didn’t want to seem like that girl that was just constantly putting in complaints.

“From what she was saying, she was worried that she’d just be seen as causing drama and... she loved the job so the biggest fear was being sent back to her unit and taken off the team.

"She was worrying that they would just remove her from the situation rather than deal with the issue.

“I think she just cared about people a lot. She took their wellbeing above her own and didn’t want to get that person in trouble, despite it not being right,” Bmdr Young said.

He told the inquest of what she told him about Bmdr Mason’s behaviour towards Gunner Beck: “It became apparent that his overall professional boundaries started to slip,” he said.

“As in it became a lot friendlier, so the line between line manager and subordinate … that area became, I would say, a little greyer.”

He told the inquest that Gunner Beck had tearfully phoned him in September 2021 to tell him that Bmdr Mason had confessed his feelings to her, which he had then repeated again the following day.

“I think persistent pursuit, despite being told ‘no, there’s nothing here’, to then extend into multiple texts, phone calls and threats to do something to yourself, I think that I wouldn’t say is healthy.”

Asked to describe Gunner Beck’s reaction to this behaviour, he replied: “It was stressful. You could tell it was stressful. She said it was stressful. I don’t think it made her feel particularly comfortable while at work.”

The court heard Bmdr Mason’s behaviour had “ramped up” in the weeks before the teenage soldier's death and led to another incident on a training exercise in December.

Bmdr Young told the hearing: “She said that it got too far, and that she could no longer deal with being around Ryan, and that she didn’t want to be on the event anymore.”

He said he picked her up from the hotel where she was staying and took her back to the camp.

“She said the intensity of the behaviour really ramped up in terms of what was being said. I think he tried knocking on her hotel room door,” Bdmr Young said.

“I believe later that week, he told her that he was going to take himself off the team for personal reasons.

"That’s when she sort of said that he’s leaving the team anyway so there’s no need to report it.”

The inquest is expected to continue until 20 or 21 February.