Death of teenage gunner Jaysley Beck ‘partly caused by Army complaints failure’

The Army’s failure to properly investigate complaints of abuse contributed to the suicide of a teenage soldier who died in her room at a base, a coroner has ruled.

Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck was found hanged at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire on December 15 2021.

The Salisbury inquest heard the 19-year-old had complained to her family about the “possessive and psychotic” behaviour of her boss, Ryan Mason, a bombardier at the time, who had sent her 4,600 WhatsApp messages over the preceding two months.

The teenager had also made a complaint against another senior soldier, Battery Sergeant Major Michael Webber, now of warrant officer 2 rank, who she said had “pinned her down” while attempting to kiss her during a stay at Thorney Island, near Emsworth in Hampshire, in July 2021 for an adventure training exercise.

On Thursday Nicholas Rheinberg, assistant coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, found that this complaint being dealt with as a “minor administrative action” instead of being reported to police as a sexual assault was “more than a minimal contributory factor” in her death.

The coroner said that despite toxicology tests showing that she was three times over legal drink drive limit at the time of her death, he believed she had intended to take her own life.

He said: “My conclusion is she died by suicide. I am satisfied Jaysley undertook the physical actions that resulted in her death by hanging, the inevitable consequences must have been known to Jaysley despite the level of alcohol she had consumed.

“I am satisfied she intended to die.”

Mr Mason denied he had tried to “manipulate” Gunner Beck by putting pressure on her by talking about his own mental health and suicide concerns while WO2 Webber, who is married, declined to answer questions at the inquest.