the times | Wednesday June 8 2022 21
News
A group of paratroopers are under
military police investigation after being
filmed having an orgy with a woman at
a military base.
Several video clips were circulated on
social media of the woman having sex
with troops from 16 Air Assault Brigade
while dozens watched.
An army source said that the clips
were “pretty graphic in detail”, adding:
“It’s a single female with a number of
soldiers engaged in consensual sex.”
It is believed that the woman, a civil-
ian, may have been smuggled into
Merville Barracks in Colchester.
The videos show sexual activity in
different areas of the base with half-
naked troops. At one point a service-
man salutes as his comrade has sex with
the woman. It is not clear when the
incident took place. The Royal Military
Police have been brought in to investi-
gate details of how she got into the
camp, whether she was signed in, and
whether any illegal activity took place.
The men may be disciplined for
breaking standing orders if they are
found to have done anything wrong,
according to army sources.
A spokesman for the army said: “The
army expects the highest standards of
behaviour from all their personnel.
Anyone not maintaining these stan-
dards will be investigated and appropri-
ate action will be taken against them.
“The Royal Military Police are in-
vestigating several videos appearing to
involve army personnel. It would be in-
appropriate to comment further while
investigations are ongoing.”
The military has faced several sex
scandals, including allegations of
inappropriate affairs and behaviour.
In 2017 nine British servicemen were
Katie Gibbons
Alex Davies was
filmed performing
a Nazi salute in the
execution chamber
at BuchenwaldThe first woman to be commissioned as
an officer in the Guards Division was
pushed over and knocked unconscious
by her lieutenant former boyfriend, a
court martial has been told.
Second Lieutenant Hannah Bird, 27,
told Bulford military court she was
attacked by Lieutenant Patrick McGre-
gor at a regimental dinner after she told
him that he had “embarrassed” her.
Lawyers acting for McGregor reject
this and claim that she tumbled over a
sofa because she was “drunk and wear-
ing high heels”. McGregor denies
assault occasioning actual bodily harm
and an alternative charge of battery.
The reservists began their relation-
ship in December 2019, when Bird,
from Pinner, northwest London, trans-
ferred to the London Guards and was
placed under McGregor’s command.
McGregor said they separated when
she met another man at Sandhurst.
Bird told the court that she became
“embarrassed” when McGregor kept
interrupting her as she spoke with
friends at the dinner last July.
“Lieutenant McGregor approached
me a few times and asked for a private
conversation,” she said. “I felt he was
being disrespectful towards the people
I was with.” Bird agreed to go into a
Military police
investigate clip
of barracks orgy
Larisa Brown Defence Editor thrown off a nuclear submarine at the
centre of a sex inquiry after testing posi-
tive for cocaine while on duty. Crew on
HMS Vigilant were alleged to have had
drug-fuelled parties while the submarine
was docked in the US to pick up nuclear
warheads. One man was said to have had
sex with a prostitute in a swimming pool.
It also emerged the captain and the
second-in-command had been removed
from duty amid claims of extramarital
affairs with two women on board.
The Ministry of Defence is attempt-
ing to change the culture by bringing in
tougher rules on trainee and instructor
relationships and improving the inde-
pendence of the complaints process.
Ben Wallace, the defence secretary,
said last year that he was considering
banning troops from hiring sex workers
on overseas deployments.
His comments came after the army
faced further questions over the alleged
role of soldiers in the death of a Kenyan
sex worker in March 2012.
Wallace was so infuriated with the
number of sex and bullying scandals in
the army last year that he ordered top
brass into his office for a telling off.
He was said to have become “exas-
perated” by generals’ failure to main-
tain standards. Following the talks, the
army held a training day on “culture
and inclusion”.
General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith,
then the head of the army, said he had
made it clear that he would no longer
tolerate unacceptable behaviour or
out-of-date practices.
Diane Allen, who served for 30 years
in the army and has campaigned for bet-
ter treatment for servicewomen, said it
was “very disappointing to see this clear
breach of military values and standards,
so soon after the new zero-tolerance
guidelines were implemented”.
Female officer ‘knocked out
by lieutenant former lover’
different room with McGregor and
another lieutenant, and told the court
that this was where the “confrontation”
occurred.
She said that McGregor pushed her,
causing her to fall over a sofa and bang
her head. “I tried to leave and walk past
him, but Lieutenant McGregor stopped
me from leaving with his hands,” she
said. “Then he used both hands to push
me backwards. It was a forceful push
and I next remember waking up on the
other side of the sofa.
“I didn’t know what had hit me... I
was disoriented and confused. The first
thing I said when I woke up was ‘Get
him away from me’.”
Bird heard the other man telling an
officer she had been pushed by McGre-
gor and had been unconscious for
about ten seconds, she told the court.
“Patrick was outside the room and I
remember hearing him shouting that I
had ‘done it to myself’,” she said.
Matthew Bolt, for the defence, put it
to Bird in cross-examination: “You
quite simply collided with him in your
anger and fell over. You were unbal-
anced. You lost balance because you
were too close to Lieutenant McGregor,
you were wearing high heels and you
were drunk.”
McGregor denies assaulting his
former partner. The trial continues.Neo-Nazi leader jailed for 8½ years
David Brown, Duncan GardhamAn extremist who co-founded the first
far-right group to be banned in Britain
since the Second World War was jailed
yesterday at the Old Bailey for eight
and a half years.
Alex Davies is the last of 19 members
of National Action to be jailed under
terrorism laws for membership of a pro-
scribed organisation. Members plotted
a “white jihad”, with one preparing to
murder an MP.
Davies, 27, of Swansea, founded the
group aged 18 while preparing to study
politics at Warwick University. He was
twice enrolled in Prevent, the govern-
ment’s de-radicalisation programme,
which he claims found he was not athreat. National Action originally
aimed to be an elitist group, recruiting
university students and graduates, but
struggled to gain support and in 2015
declared itself a collective of “brutes”. It
mirrored the activities of Islamists with
a philosophy of “white jihad” and
organised training camps in prepara-
tion for a “race war”. Its ideology has
inspired international far-right groups.
Video clips showed Davies in a groupwearing hoods and skull masks, calling
for race traitors to be gassed. He was
also photographed performing a Nazi
salute in the execution chamber at Bu-
chenwald concentration camp in 2016.
National Action was banned in
December 2016 and Davies founded a
splinter group called National Socialist
Anti-Capitalist Action (NS131). His
continuing activities were uncovered
when a whistleblower revealed that a
member planned to kill Rosie Cooper,
the Labour MP for West Lancashire.
Jailing Davies, Judge Mark Dennis
said: “You are an intelligent and
educated young man but have held
over a period of many years warped and
shocking prejudices which you have
maintained to this day.”HARPER’S BAZAAR UK/RACHEL LOUISE BROWNMind and might The new
issue of Harper’s Bazaar,
on sale today, celebrates
“female strength, spirit
and resilience”, featuring
the MP Stella Creasy and
athlete Dina Asher-Smith