Stop BEASTINGS in the Army

In Dedication to Private Gavin Williams

WE CAN HELP!

 
 If you are in the Armed Forces and have been subjected to any kind of Beasting,Bullying,harrassment.humilation,torture then
we can help!
If you are aware that someone is being Bullied or similar in the Armed Forces please speak out now and find them the help they so desperately need before it's too late
 
You can contact myself in confidence and i will get you the help you need
There are a number or organisations that i am attached to and professional people who i know on a personal basis
 
You or any of your colleagues in the Army should never be treated like that as you are doing a job to protect our country and should be respected for doing so,BUT there is always a few officers who think they can take the law into their own hands
 
Do not leave it too late ring now or send me a message!
What is BULLYING ...
bullying, harassment, army, navy, royal, air, force, raf, military, armed, services, mod, defence, defense, ministry, benton, james, grey, gray, collinson, alison, croft, skinner, official, secrets, act, non, combat, death, deaths, suicide, suicides

Bullying, harassment and suicide in the military armed services
Bullying in the army, bullying in the navy, bullying in the royal air force

100 years ago it was considered couragous to die for your country but today people are more likely to be focused on the employer’s Duty of Care under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974). The reality is today's Army Soldier, in their attempt to be the best, is 15 times more likely to die in their barracks than in combat.

The recent spate of suicides and suspicious deaths at Deepcut Army Barracks in Surrey, England, and the death of Private Gavin Williams suggests that the army in the UK seems to have a lax attitude to death of personnel in service. By contrast the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force don’t seem to have a suicide problem amongst recruits - at least not at anywhere near the same levels.

In June 1995 Private Sean Benton, from Hastings, East Sussex, was found dead at the Deepcut Princess Royal Barracks. He had five bullet wounds to his chest. Ballistics tests suggested that only one bullet was fired from close range and the others from a distance, but the Army claimed he had committed suicide.

In November 1995 Private Cheryl James, 18, of Llangollen, Gwent, was found dead with a single bullet wound to the head at the barracks which is the headquarters of the Royal Logistical Corps. The coroner recorded an open verdict but an Army inquiry concluded she had committed suicide. Surrey Police said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the Private James' death

In September 2001 Private Geoff Gray, 17, from Hackney, east London, was found dead with two gunshot wounds to his head while on guard duty. A coroner recorded an open verdict after hearing from witnesses that during a search after the shots were fired a figure was seen running away. In total five shots were fired; three bullets have not been found. His parents have a web site devoted to discovering the truth about his death.

On 23 March, Private James Collinson, 17, from Perth, was found dead with a single gunshot wound while on guard duty at the Deepcut barracks. The Army said he shot himself, but his parents do not accept this, insisting he had been happy. As of November 2002 no inquest has been held.

On 3rd July 2006 Private Gavin Willliams of the royal Welsh Regiment in Tidworth,Wiltshire died as a result of an unofficial punishment system known as "BEASTING" in which 3 officers were aquitted at trial for his manslaughter,the judge in his summing up blamed the Army as an whole for allowing this 3rd unofficial system to take place in their barracks when everyone at camp were well aware of the practice

Despite army denials, a leaked report reveals a culture of bullying, harassment, rape, racism and beatings at Deepcut Army Barracks. In October 2004, former Deepcut Army barracks training instructor Leslie Skinner was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for sex attacks on young male soldiers.

There’s a world of difference between shouting abuse and shouting encouragement. Bullies disingenuously confuse the two in order to abdicate responsibility for their abuse. Abuse reveals itself by patterns. At Deepcut there's a pattern of four suspicious deaths, and another at Abingdon in Oxfordshire in October 2002. There have also been suspicious deaths at Catterick in North Yorkshire.

In a civilian workplace people can stand up to verbal abuse, get their union involved, if necessary a solicitor, and claim constructive dismissal for the employer’s repudiatory conduct. In the army, recruits are subject to military discipline and therefore none of these options are available. Service personnel are socially and geographically isolated and this means they don’t have contact with sources of information, advice and support that civilians workers do. No personal space, no permanent home, living in barracks, no privacy, no social contact, and no PC with Internet access. Even access to a phone may be difficult. Life in the military means living in a closed community, no access to independent investigators or to the media for undercover filming.

Service personnel are often unable to leave the base and as such are, to all intents and purposes, a prisoner of their circumstances. Inexperienced, isolated, vulnerable young people in a captive environment with a hierarchy of military discipline and the threat of the Official Secrets Act provides the ideal breeding ground for a culture of abuse.

There’s no doubt that the UK has a professional army that is highly regarded throughout the world. However, there is a dark side and the army has a poor record of death in service and an uneasy attitude to psychiatric injury and PTSD. More veterans of the Falklands war have since committed suicide than were killed in the battle itself. In WW1, 306 soldiers were executed on the orders of General Haig (known at the time as Butcher Haig) for the sole purpose of instilling fear in the remaining soldiers. It’s not recognised that most, and maybe all, the selected soldiers, many of them teenagers, were exhibiting the symptoms of PTSD. Today, General Haig would be regarded as a war criminal but he retains his earldom whilst the families who lost a loved one still bear the shame of false accusations of cowardice and desertion. The Army, and the UK government, continue to refuse to issue posthumous pardons, presumably because they fear legal action, compensation claims, and closer inspection of unpalatable matters such as continuing deaths in non-combat situations.

Bullying in the Armed Forces is not restricted to new recruits and junior ranks. A growing number of allegations have been made by older service personnel that they're being hounded out of their jobs before normal retirement age so that the Ministry of Defence can save on pension costs. For every soldier forced to leave after giving 12 years loyal service, a saving of one million pound in pension payments for every four soldiers discharged this way can be made. [More]

Whenever an Army spokesman is interviewed there are strenuous denials of bullying, or heavy emphasis on "policy". However a policy is only words on paper, it needs a commitment from those in authority to make it work. Fours suspicious deaths and another recently at a barracks in Abingdon (and more elsewhere) are evidence that the Army’s fine words are at odds with reality.

The Armed Forces also offer careers to people in a non-combatant role such as engineer, driver, cook etc. These people are then subject to the same brutal disciplinarian regime as their combatant colleagues. One should not be surprised that problems arise. In October 2002, chef Alison Croft, 22, hung herself from a wardrobe door at Dalton barracks in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

Links

Brutal Army bullies 'ruined my life'.

The Forces Helpline is an independent service provided by ex-forces personnel: http://www.forces-helpline.com/

In memory of Daniel Michael Farr who died whilst serving with the Prince of Wales Own Regiment of Yorkshire at Catterick: http://embark.to/DANIEL

Secret video shows bullying at Army School of Infantry in Catterick, Yorkshire: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4739955.stm

Soldier commits suicide at Catterick: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/3829379.stm

Catterick families call for inquiry into suicides and non-combat deaths: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/2999466.stm

Independent review held into abuse allegations at the Army's Deepcut barracks in Surrey: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3179985.stm

Religious bullying rife at US Air Force Academy: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4091956.stm

Bullying, harassment and abuse rife in South Korea army: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4683079.stm

South Korea army bullying ends in killing spree: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4107754.stm

Russian army bullying horrific: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3756866.stm

 

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 FEELING SUICIDAL?
if you are thinking about
suicide... read this first

If you are feeling suicidal now, please stop long enough to read this. It will only take about five minutes. I do not want to talk you out of your bad feelings. I am not a therapist or other mental health professional - only someone who knows what it is like to be in pain.

I don’t know who you are, or why you are reading this page. I only know that for the moment, you’re reading it, and that is good. I can assume that you are here because you are troubled and considering ending your life. If it were possible, I would prefer to be there with you at this moment, to sit with you and talk, face to face and heart to heart. But since that is not possible, we will have to make do with this.

I have known a lot of people who have wanted to kill themselves, so I have some small idea of what you might be feeling. I know that you might not be up to reading a long book, so I am going to keep this short. While we are together here for the next five minutes, I have five simple, practical things I would like to share with you. I won’t argue with you about whether you should kill yourself. But I assume that if you are thinking about it, you feel pretty bad.

Well, you’re still reading, and that’s very good. I’d like to ask you to stay with me for the rest of this page. I hope it means that you’re at least a tiny bit unsure, somewhere deep inside, about whether or not you really will end your life. Often people feel that, even in the deepest darkness of despair. Being unsure about dying is okay and normal. The fact that you are still alive at this minute means you are still a little bit unsure. It means that even while you want to die, at the same time some part of you still wants to live. So let’s hang on to that, and keep going for a few more minutes.


Start by considering this statement:

“Suicide is not chosen; it happens
when pain exceeds
resources for coping with pain.”

That’s all it’s about. You are not a bad person, or crazy, or weak, or flawed, because you feel suicidal. It doesn’t even mean that you really want to die - it only means that you have more pain than you can cope with right now. If I start piling weights on your shoulders, you will eventually collapse if I add enough weights... no matter how much you want to remain standing. Willpower has nothing to do with it. Of course you would cheer yourself up, if you could.

Don’t accept it if someone tells you, “that’s not enough to be suicidal about.” There are many kinds of pain that may lead to suicide. Whether or not the pain is bearable may differ from person to person. What might be bearable to someone else, may not be bearable to you. The point at which the pain becomes unbearable depends on what kinds of coping resources you have. Individuals vary greatly in their capacity to withstand pain.

When pain exceeds pain-coping resources, suicidal feelings are the result. Suicide is neither wrong nor right; it is not a defect of character; it is morally neutral. It is simply an imbalance of pain versus coping resources.

You can survive suicidal feelings if you do either of two things: (1) find a way to reduce your pain, or (2) find a way to increase your coping resources. Both are possible.

Now I want to tell you five things to think about.


1

You need to hear that people do get through this -- even people who feel as badly as you are feeling now. Statistically, there is a very good chance that you are going to live. I hope that this information gives you some sense of hope.

2

Give yourself some distance. Say to yourself, “I will wait 24 hours before I do anything.” Or a week. Remember that feelings and actions are two different things - just because you feel like killing yourself, doesn’t mean that you have to actually do it right this minute. Put some distance between your suicidal feelings and suicidal action. Even if it’s just 24 hours. You have already done it for 5 minutes, just by reading this page. You can do it for another 5 minutes by continuing to read this page. Keep going, and realize that while you still feel suicidal, you are not, at this moment, acting on it. That is very encouraging to me, and I hope it is to you.

3

People often turn to suicide because they are seeking relief from pain. Remember that relief is a feeling. And you have to be alive to feel it. You will not feel the relief you so desperately seek, if you are dead.

4

Some people will react badly to your suicidal feelings, either because they are frightened, or angry; they may actually increase your pain instead of helping you, despite their intentions, by saying or doing thoughtless things. You have to understand that their bad reactions are about their fears, not about you.

But there are people out there who can be with you in this horrible time, and will not judge you, or argue with you, or send you to a hospital, or try to talk you out of how badly you feel. They will simply care for you. Find one of them. Now. Use your 24 hours, or your week, and tell someone what’s going on with you. It is okay to ask for help. Try:

  • Send an anonymous e-mail to The Samaritans
  • Call 1-800-SUICIDE in the U.S.
  • Teenagers, call Covenant House NineLine, 1-800-999-9999
  • Look in the front of your phone book for a crisis line
  • Call a psychotherapist
  • Carefully choose a friend or a minister or rabbi, someone who is likely to listen

But don’t give yourself the additional burden of trying to deal with this alone. Just talking about how you got to where you are, releases an awful lot of the pressure, and it might be just the additional coping resource you need to regain your balance.

5

Suicidal feelings are, in and of themselves, traumatic. After they subside, you need to continue caring for yourself. Therapy is a really good idea. So are the various self-help groups available both in your community and on the Internet.

Well, it’s been a few minutes and you’re still with me. I’m really glad.

Since you have made it this far, you deserve a reward. I think you should reward yourself by giving yourself a gift. The gift you will give yourself is a coping resource. Remember, back up near the top of the page, I said that the idea is to make sure you have more coping resources than you have pain. So let’s give you another coping resource, or two, or ten...! until they outnumber your sources of pain.

Now, while this page may have given you some small relief, the best coping resource we can give you is another human being to talk with. If you find someone who wants to listen, and tell them how you are feeling and how you got to this point, you will have increased your coping resources by one. Hopefully the first person you choose won’t be the last. There are a lot of people out there who really want to hear from you. It’s time to start looking around for one of them.

Now: I’d like you to call someone who can help