Female Forces veterans tell of sex assaults while on duty

AN ARMED Services veterans’ charity is urging the Government to do more to protect female soldiers after a survey found more than half of women who had served in the RAF, Army or Navy were sexually assaulted.

Forward Assist, an organisation in the North East of England, conducted interviews with 100 female veterans expecting to find the greatest challenge they faced in civilian life was overcoming post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following recent conflicts.

Instead, they discovered 52 out of 100 women questioned said they had been sexually assaulted while serving.

Meanwhile, 26 women claimed they had been physically assaulted, 66 said they were bullied and 49 of them admitted they had experienced “emotional trauma”.

A total of 58 per cent reported having mental health issues when they left the Armed Forces, but 60 of them said they received little support when retiring from the military. Ministry of Defence (MoD) statistics show it conducted 153 investigations into offences contrary to the Sexual Offences Act, of those 18 were historical.

Last year, an anonymous survey of 2,591 women by the Army focusing on sexual harassment found 326 women recorded an upsetting experience, of whom three per cent – about 77 females – made an allegation of rape.

While there is no suggestion Forward Assist’s figures are reflected among the current female serving population in the Armed Forces, Tony Wright, a former Royal Marine and social worker who founded the charity, said he was “shocked” by the research.

“I was expecting to find the women were suffering combat-related stress, such as PTSD. But I didn’t expect this level of military sexual trauma.”

An MoD spokesman said: “Sexual harassment in any form is not tolerated in the Armed Forces, and we urge any victim of abuse, whether serving or veteran, to come forward.”