Army abuse case collapses over botched investigation

BRITAIN’S largest Army abuse prosecution collapsed after Royal Military Police mishandled the investigation, it was revealed yesterday.

All 16 instructors accused of illtreating teenage recruits were cleared after three courts martial were abandoned.

Instructors from the Army Foundation College in North Yorkshire had been accused of pushing recruits’ heads underwater until they choked, forcing animal excrement into their mouths, and punching them at a 2014 camp in Scotland.

But military police decided not to secure evidence that might ‘undermine the prosecution’s case’, meaning many witnesses were not interviewed.

At Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire, the prosecution offered no evidence against five defendants and the next day Assistant Judge Advocate General Alan Large ruled five more could not get a fair trial and stayed proceedings.

A decision was made to offer no evidence against the final six instructors and the case – reported to have cost £1million to bring to court – collapsed.

Judge Advocate Large said military police had a ‘totally blinkered approach’ and the case was ‘seriously flawed’. The Army said a review would ‘ensure lessons are learned’.