Recruits cop abuse at army training

More than half of all army recruits have been verbally abused by instructors during their training, a report shows.

The figures come after a series of high-profile court martials, for incidents where trainees have been subject to physical abuse such as having their testicles twisted.

In a report assessing the quality of recruit training in the New Zealand Defence Force, more than half of all army recruits reported being verbally abused by an instructor at some point in their training.

A quarter said they encountered repeated verbal abuse from instructors.

The report, released in October 2015, said repeated verbal abuse by instructors was linked to a decrease in recruits’ intention to remain in the service and increased psychological distress.

At a court martial in July at Linton Military Camp, abuse of recruits was highlighted when Staff Sergeant Glen Edward Roberts was found guilty of two charges of ill-treating a subordinate.

He was also found guilty of doing an act likely to prejudice service discipline by using a real knife during close-quarter combat training in October.

One private, who has name suppression, told the court martial he didn’t think there was much he could do after being hit in the testicles by Roberts during closequarter battle training, and being jabbed in the eyes so hard his contacts came out.

‘‘He was a staff sergeant and I was a recruit. I didn’t have the authority at the time to step up and say something was wrong. ‘‘As me, starting off my career and Staff Sergeant Roberts being a staff sergeant, I didn’t want to step on any toes or make a name for myself.’’

A woman recruit, who also has name suppression, said she was not sure what her rights were.

‘‘I wasn’t sure as a recruit what I could and couldn’t do as you’re always told ‘you’re a recruit, you have no rights’.’’

The report showed there was evidence of a need to re-invest in systems to select, train and supervise instructional staff.

A spokesman for the New Zealand Defence Force said since the report was released many of the recommendations had been taken on board.

‘‘Since 2015, we have improved our instructor selection process, including screening potential instructors using psychological evaluation prior to posting in the training environment.

‘‘All our current instructors are fully vetted, trained and supervised for this challenging role. We currently have an eightto-one ratio of instructors to students in recruit training.’’

He said ongoing surveys were done with recruits, which showed they were well-cared for and excited to participate in training.

‘‘We will continue to take a zero tolerance approach to any inappropriate behaviour.’’