‘YOU ARE MINE NOW, BITCHES’
Army instructor ‘hit recruits’
by STEVE HUGHES
AN Army instructor told junior recruits “You’re mine now, bitches”, a court martial heard.
Corporal Kimberley Hey asked “Who thinks they’re hardest?” and then punched those who claimed they were, it was alleged.
The 34-year-old, who has boxed throughout her Army career, was said to have subjected soldiers half her age – male and female and all under 18 – to regular punches. Signaller Hannah Harwood, who gave evidence via video link from the Falkland Islands, spoke multiple incidents at Army Foundation College Harrogate, in North Yorks.
She said: “Cpl Hey addressed the platoon at the beginning of the first term, when we first arrived. She said something along the lines of ‘You’re mine now, bitches.’
“At the start of the second term Cpl Hey asked us ‘Who thinks they’re hardest?’ Three people put their hands up and Cpl Hey punched them all in the stomach. If she was in a bad mood she would punch us. She did punch me on one occasion, just a quick jab to my stomach.”
At the start of the trainees’ third and final six-week term, the instructor simply “started punching people”, Sig Harwood said.
She added: “Cpl Hey punched (another male trainee) and winded him. (He) started crying and I think Cpl Hey felt really bad after as she was very apologetic.” Wing Commander Michael Saunders, prosecuting at Bulford Military Court, Wilts, said Cpl Hey would “dish out” punches when soldiers got questions wrong. But Cpl Hey insists her actions were “banter” and amounted to “bonding” with recruits. Craftsman Joseph Wiggin said Cpl Hey had punched “everyone in the platoon” on the first day of training, when he was 16.
But he added: “There was no malice behind it – it was more of a sort of bonding thing.”
Cpl Hey, of 3rd Regiment Royal Logistics Corps, denies eight counts of battery involving five junior soldiers. The hearing continues.