Decorated war heroes among 17 instructors charged with abuse of teenage cadets

DECORATED Afghanistan and Iraq veterans are among 17 former Army instructors facing charges for mistreating cadets in the Army’s largest abuse investigation to date.

Instructors at the Army Foundation College, where teenage soldiers are trained, face charges ranging from actual bodily harm and battery, to mistreatment of subordinates. The abuse is alleged to have taken place three years ago at the academy, which last year featured in a television documentary aimed at increasing recruitment.

The instructors are alleged to have kicked or punched the cadets during infantry training and smearing their faces with sheep and cow dung. All the accused strongly deny the charges.

The college in Harrogate is the Army’s training base for recruits who join up at 16 or 17. The six alleged victims were each aged 17 when the abuse is said to have taken place in 2014.

In 2016, the college appeared in Real Recruits: Squaddies at 16, a Channel 5 documentary about the Army’s youngest recruits. Defence chiefs agreed to the documentary, with the Army struggling to recruit to plug a 4,000 shortfall in soldiers. The alleged abuse took place when instructors accompanied about 200 recruits on a battle camp in Kirkcudbright, Scotland.

A source told The Mail on Sunday: “The recruits were ordered to charge

‘Some claim when they fell into a stream, instructors used their boots to push the recruits’ heads underwater’

with bayonets fixed to their rifles, as they would if they cleared an enemy trench in battle.

“According to legal documents, some recruits allege they were punched, kicked and tripped as they advanced. Some claim when they fell into a stream, instructors used their boots to push the recruits’ heads under the water, making them gasp for air.”

Others claim instructors carrying handfuls of sheep and cow dung approached from behind and smeared the excrement over their faces and pressed it into their mouths.

An Army spokesman said: “We can confirm that 17 former recruit instructors are to face court martial proceedings at Bulford Court Martial Centre on Sept 21 and 22.

“These cases are subject to judicial consideration, therefore it would not be appropriate to comment further”.

The charges follow a three-year, £1 million military police investigation into the allegations.

Five of the alleged victims are reported to have remained in the Army and one has since left.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former British Army commander in Afghanistan, said: “This is extraordinary. I have never heard of a case of this scale. If these charges are proven it will certainly be detrimental to the Army from a recruiting perspective. But I am incredulous as well as surprised.

“While there must be some aggression in recruit training, what is alleged goes far beyond what is acceptable.”