Today, Michael Webber was jailed for six months for the sexual assault of the late Gunner Jaysley Beck, and he will be recorded on the sex offender’s register for seven years.
Leighann McCready, Jaysley’s mother, said:
‘Today Michael Webber has been sentenced to 6 months in prison and he will be on the sex offender’s register for 7 years for the sexual assault of our daughter, Jaysley-Louise Beck. Jaysley should have been sat in court with us today to see the person she reported held accountable for what he did. Instead, we stand here without her, living a life sentence that no family should ever have to face. What he did, and how the Army failed to protect our daughter afterwards, cost Jaysley her life. Jaysley was just 19, a beautiful, bright, confident girl with her whole life ahead of her. She did everything right but was failed by the system that was meant to support and protect her. She followed the rules, but those responsible didn’t follow theirs. They failed to act, failed to report, and failed to follow up. Those failures destroyed our daughter completely. When another senior male later started harassing her, she said she didn’t want to be known as a troublemaker and didn’t see any point in reporting him. They talk about lessons learned, but we’re still waiting to see any real change. I stand here as a bereaved mother fighting for real change now, not hollow promises or recycled words that have already failed my daughter and continue to fail others. Real action means giving soldiers somewhere truly independent to report serious complaints, without fear or favour. The Army cannot keep marking its own homework. Until that’s actioned, nothing will ever change. Our soldiers deserve a system they can trust, one that protects them, believes them, and values their lives above its own reputation.’
Emma Norton, solicitor for the family said:
“It’s an enormous relief that the man that assaulted Jaysley pleaded guilty and has today been sentenced. But what a difference it would have made if the Army (by which I mean Jaysley’s chain of command) had just listened to Jaysley when she told them about the assault the morning it happened and reported it to the police – instead of trying to persuade her that it wasn’t that serious, and to think about the impact on her assailant’s career and family. What an unconscionable thing to have done and what awful consequences it has had. And it is important to remember that, to the extent that there has been some sort of justice today, nothing would have happened if not for the efforts of Jaysley’s family. At every stage it has been for the family to press for the most basic of inquiries to be undertaken.”
The timeline of events is as follows:
2018 Jaysley joined the Army aged 16.
12-13/07/21 Jaysley (then aged 19) is sexually assaulted while on exercise at Thorney Island by the Battery Sergeant Major, WO2 Michael Webber. Jaysley reported this the next morning to her captain, who urged her to think about the impact of making a formal report on Webber, and suggested she was making up the allegation because she was not enjoying being on exercise. The Coroner made the following findings about how her captain (since promoted to Major) dealt with this: “1) Major Hook did not initiate any investigations into Jaysley’s allegations (2) Made assumptions as to Jaysley’s veracity without any factual basis for doing so (3) Put pressure on her to drop her allegations (4) Only reported the matter to higher command when it became apparent that Jaysley’s (other) line management had been involved in the pursuit of a complaint.”
13/07/21 Jaysley reported it up herself. It was passed to the Colonel, Col Samantha Shepherd who, instead of reporting the matter to the police, persuaded Jaysley to accept a letter of apology from Webber who was given a ‘minor administrative action’ interview, with no other consequences for him; and who shortly thereafter enjoyed a promotion to a ‘soldier-facing’ role. The Coroner found “on the balance of probabilities that the complaint should have been reported to the police and that a failure to do so breached army policy. I find on the balance of probabilities that the complaint should not have been dealt with by way of minor administrative action and that adopting this route breached army policy. As it was, a sexual assault carried out on a 19-year-old gunner by a middle-aged man of senior rank was recorded merely as: “Inappropriate behaviour unbecoming of a Warrant Officer whilst on RHQ RA AT expedition in Thorney Island on 13 Jul 21.” The Coroner concluded that “the failure of the Army to deal with her complaint arising from the actions of the BSM in a lawfully proper way more than minimally contributed to her death”.
September – November 2021 Jaysley is sent more than 4500 texts and voice-notes from her line manager, Bdr Ryan Mason, and experiences extreme harassment from him over three months. She did not report this. The Coroner found that Jaysley had, as a result of the way in which the Army dealt with her report about Webber, “lost faith in her ability to complain effectively to the extent that she did not complain of the harassment that she was receiving from the Bombardier.”
15/12/21 Jaysley died.
04/10/23 Service Inquiry report into the death is published (leads to no proceedings being instituted, whether criminal or disciplinary, against anyone).
05/10/23 Beck family write to the Secretary of State for Defence, urging him to reform the Service Complaints system, in particular to remove responsibility for handling the most serious Service Complaints from the single Services.
10-21/02/25 Jaysley’s inquest. The Coroner heard evidence that Jaysley had told her mother that Webber had made a pass at her, tried to touch her between her legs, and told her friend that she had repeatedly tried to push him away and he had pinned her down. She was so afraid she locked herself in her car overnight in case he came to find her in the Army accommodation. She was dissuaded from reporting to the police, which was against Army policy. She was then subjected to extreme sexual harassment by her line manager, a bombardier. The Coroner concluded that the Army’s failings in the handling of the sexual assault more than minimally contributed to Jaysley’s death:
‘I find that the failure of the army to deal with her complaint arising from the actions of the BSM in a lawfully proper way more than minimally contributed to Jaysley’s death. Jaysley was left with a feeling of injustice but more importantly, lost faith in her ability to complain effectively to the extent that she did not complain of the harassment that she was receiving from the Bombardier. Jaysley’s superiors were aware of the fact that a serious wrong had been done to Jaysley by a senior officer. Trivial disciplinary action was taken under the guise that this is what the injured person wanted and that this course was victim led. A serious offence had been revealed and demanded proper action. Inappropriate paternalism should play no part in an institution that demands high standards and a strict adherence to rules. Taking the decision to proceed against the BSM out of the hands of the victim would have helped to mitigate the fears of a backlash so frequently referred to, together with fears that Jaysley would be seen as a serial complainer.’
The Coroner also concludes that ‘the system for making complaints was insufficiently robust so as to facilitate engagement’.
The Army, at the inquest, give evidence that they are not going to remove responsibility for handling serious Service Complaints from the single Services themselves.
24/02/25 Jaysley’s formally family ask Wiltshire Police to consider criminal proceedings in respect of Webber (among others).
18/03/25, the day the Minister was due to appear before the Defence Committee of the House of Commons, MoD announces it will now introduce a ‘Tri Services’ investigation scheme with responsibility for dealing with the most serious Service Complaints, such as those that could have been raised by Jaysley, to be removed from the single Services themselves.
10/06/25 Wiltshire police pass the file to the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA).
06/08/25 The SPA confirms it will charge Webber with the offence of sexual assault.
05/09/25 Webber pleads guilty to sexual assault.
31/10/25 Webber sentenced to six months in prison (he will serve three) and to be recorded on the sex offender’s register for seven years.