Former Army warrant officer sentenced to six months for sexual assault

A former senior noncommissioned Army officer who admitted sexually assaulting a 19-year-old soldier has been sentenced to six months in prison after a court martial at Bulford Military Court Centre on Friday, October 31. Warrant Officer Michael Webber, 43, pleaded guilty to assaulting Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck during a training stay at Thorney Island in Hampshire in July 2021, the court heard.

Prosecutors told the military board that Webber, then a Battery Sergeant Major, and Gunner Beck had been drinking together and playing a game called Last Man Standing when he put his hand on the back of her head, leaned in to kiss her and touched her thigh. Gunner Beck pushed him away, hid in a toilet cubicle and later spent the night locked in her car because she feared returning to her accommodation. She reported the incident to her chain of command the following morning. Webber was subject at the time to minor administrative action, interviewed and required to write a letter of apology, but the matter was not referred to the police, the court was told.

Gunner Beck was found dead at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire on December 15, 2021, five months after the incident. At an inquest...