Ex-British sergeant major sentenced for sexually assaulting 19-year-old soldier, who later killed herself

Michael Webber, an ex-British sergeant major, has been sentenced to six months of jail term for charges of sexual assault at the court martial centre in Bulford. He assaulted a 19-year-old soldier, Jaysley Beck, who killed herself as the investigators failed to probe the case. Webber left the army and had assaulted Beck during a training exercise in Hampshire in July 2021. “Jaysley did everything right. She reported the assault immediately, not once but twice. Her chain of command failed her,” said Leighann McCready, the deceased’s mother, told news outlet Guardian.

“The justice system shouldn’t work like this – whether civilian or military. It shouldn’t depend upon a grieving family pressing at every stage for investigations that should have been conducted right at the start when Jaysley first reported what had happened to her," she added.