Teenage boy taught himself law to sue Sea Cadet ‘bullies’
A TEENAGER who accused the Sea Cadets of homophobic and bullying behaviour has won an out of court settlement after teaching himself law.
Monty Lord, 16, said the naval charity should “hang their heads in shame” after they paid him £1,200 following allegations against senior officers.
The claims, denied by the Sea Cadets, were included in 312 pages of documents submitted to Preston county court last summer.
In them, he claimed the Prestonbased unit was “not fit for purpose” and sought damages under the Consumer Protection Act (2015). The schoolboy secured a settlement of £1,207.94 in damages plus costs last month on behalf of six other claimants and members of staff before the case went to court.
The Sea Cadets said the allegations were “unsubstantiated” and insisted the payment was a refund of membership fees made as a “gesture of goodwill” as Covid had impacted its activities.
A letter sent from Ian Loughnane, chair of the Preston Sea Cadets, last month confirmed payments had been made to claimants “by way of remedy”.
It said there was “no admission of liability”. One incident, denied by the Sea Cadets, involved a senior officer telling a cadet: “You’re a gay cadet who walks around with his thumb up his a--- and you’ll never make it anywhere.”
The documents reveal allegations that children as young as 13 were forced to undergo “aggression training”.
They allege that cadets shouted rallying cries including: “What makes the grass grow? Blood, blood, blood! What’s the bayonet for? Kill, kill, kill!”
These allegations have also been denied by the Sea Cadets.
Monty Lord has since described the officers’ behaviour as “disgusting”. He said: “They need to fix their behaviour and hang their heads in shame.
“They are supposed to be the responsible adults and authority figures. They say they have a zero-tolerance attitude to this behaviour … they seem to misunderstand what zero tolerance means.”