More than a dozen women came forward to report a staff sergeant in the Royal Military Police (RMP) for sexual abuse, but he was allowed to resign from the army instead of face charges.

Warning: This article contains material some readers may find distressing

That’s the claim of a whistleblower who served as a sergeant in the RMP for over a decade and says she was one of the man’s victims.

Amy, not her real name, says a “toxic” culture in the military police means sexual predators in the army are “getting away with stuff that they shouldn’t be getting away with”.

It’s a rare insight into life inside the Royal Military Police, the corps charged with investigating crime in the army.

Amy described how the man who assaulted her would go into women’s rooms and sit on their beds. She says he used to force her to go out driving with him at night and talk about sex.

“He preyed on the young, new females that were in the unit,” she says.

“One day, I was out with my friends in town and he was on patrol… There were two of us that went over to speak to him and I had quite a low-cut top on.

“So he hooked his finger around my top and pulled my boob out”.

She recalls as she tried to stop him, “he grabbed my hand and put it on his penis”.

She claims there are other men in the RMP who’ve been accused of sexual offences, recalling hearing of five separate allegations of rape against male colleagues by female colleagues.

“If all of this sexual assault and bullying and rapes are going on within the military police, how can they then go out and investigate the wider army for doing the same things?” she says.

“It doesn’t work.”

‘He got away with it’

Looking back on her career in the army is difficult for Amy.

After leaving, she tried to settle back into life as a civilian with a new job and a young family to look after, but says she worried about bumping into former colleagues in the street.

“It’s taken me a long time to heal,” she says.

“I was very bitter towards my military career when I left, but I’ve had to sort of learn, build myself up again and remember the good times because they were really good times as well… I think it was just so bad at points.”

When she joined the RMP, she believed she would be part of a unit “representing how the rest of the soldiers should be conducting themselves”.

The reality, she says, was that she had become part of “one of the most toxic” corps in the army.

She recalls being told that the staff sergeant she had reported for sexual assault would be allowed to resign.

“They basically told me he’s not going to be charged, but will be leaving the military… doing him a favour,” she says.

“He got away with it all,” she adds. “He’s not going to lose his pension and whatever else he would have lost with a dishonourable discharge.

“He’s left without a criminal record… that’s not safe for civilians as well, because it’s not even on his record.”

‘They investigate themselves’

Earlier this year, an inquest into the suicide of 19-year-old Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck found she had been failed by the army after reporting sexual assault and harassment.

Since then, Sky News has reported claims of widespread abuse and growing calls for investigations into sexual offences to be removed from the RMP and instead carried out by civilian police.

The Labour chair of the influential House of Commons Defence Committee is now urging the government to act.

Tan Dhesi told Sky News: “The system needs to change… incidents of sexual violence and sexual assault should be dealt with not by the Royal Military Police but by civilian police and civilian courts.

“I hope that the government will be making that substantial change in the very, very near future; in fact, they should do it ASAP.”

Since Gunner Beck’s death, a new tri-service complaints team has been announced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The change will see bullying, harassment, discrimination related service complaints dealt with by a team outside the commands of the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force.

However, Amy believes investigations need to be done “completely separately from the military”.

“Otherwise it doesn’t work because friends will be investigating friends,” she says.

“I think there’s such a male-dominated space in the military still. Women have no chance… and it’s not fair because people are getting away with stuff that they shouldn’t be getting away with and allowed to continue doing it and ruining lives.”

She believes the entire system lacks accountability. “They investigate themselves,” she says, even down to how the RMP is regulated.

“The people that run that unit are RMP. They get posted in, do a few years and then get posted back out.”

‘I was told off for reporting it’

Katie, also not her real name, served in the army for over 20 years. She saw active service in Afghanistan and rose to the rank of Captain.

It was a distinguished career that was brought to a premature end by sexual abuse and whistleblowing.

Having taken the difficult decision to leave the army she now leads a secluded life and suffers poor mental health.

“I still struggle,” she says. “I’m still very wary of men. My relationship is strained.

“Everything seems like black and white now, like I live my life in black and white rather than full colour… As a person, it has changed my life forever.”

To begin with, she was in the same unit that Gunner Beck would join years later. She too experienced harassment and abuse, and says her line manager “laughed” when she reported it.

“I just felt like dehumanised, I felt like property, I didn’t feel like a person anymore,” she says.

“And so I would avoid people… I would hide in the garages, behind the tanks, in between the guns, just praying that these people hadn’t seen me and I might be able to escape them for that day.”

She moved to a different unit but says wherever she went, abuse was rife. After being groped by a higher-ranking colleague, she assumed her chain of command would escalate her report to the RMP.

Instead, she says she was “put in front of the Sergeant Major and told off”.

“I remember at the time saying I’d like to call the civilian police, and I was told that I wasn’t allowed to do that and I’d be disciplined if I tried to do that,” she said. “So I was so frightened.”

She stayed in the army, hoping to make a difference. As an officer, she began reporting abusers on behalf of younger victims.

“I kept this goal in my head of reaching a position one day where I could help other women,” she said. “When I got there, I realised that it was way more toxic than I could have ever imagined.

“The officer corps were actually the worst perpetrators of all because they brushed it under the carpet. There was a will and a need more to protect themselves or their friends. Or the reputation of the unit first and foremost.”

She believes changes made by the MoD since the death of Gunner Beck to remove the chain of command from sexual abuse investigations will make “little difference”, saying they’ll still be carried out by “the same people, but just under a new title”.

‘They should be held accountable’

An MoD spokesperson told Sky News that “unacceptable and criminal behaviour has absolutely no place in our Armed Forces”.

They added: “That is why this government is creating a new Tri-Service Complaints team to take the most serious complaints out of the chain of single service command for the first time, and has launched a new central taskforce on Violence Against Women and Girls to give this issue the attention it deserves.

“We are also establishing an independent Armed Forces Commissioner with the power to visit defence sites unannounced, and to investigate and report to parliament any welfare matters affecting service life.”

Amy believes the RMP is not fit for purpose.

“They have higher standards to uphold, yet they don’t uphold them within their own regiment, within their own lives, and then they’re expected to police and uphold those standards throughout the rest of the army,” she says.

“At the end of the day, they know the law and they should be held accountable for what they do.”

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK

Further moves to amend the controversial assisted dying bill are being made by MPs as it returns to the Commons for another day of emotionally charged debate.

After a marathon committee stage, when more than 500 amendments were debated, of which a third were agreed, the bill returns to the Commons with 130 amendments tabled.

As a result, the final and decisive votes on whether the bill clears the Commons and heads to the House of Lords are not expected until a further debate on 13 June.

The bill proposes allowing terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to receive medical assistance to die, with approval from two doctors and an expert panel.

Why is assisted dying so controversial – and where is it already legal?

In a historic vote last November, after impassioned arguments on both sides, MPs voted 330 to 275 in favour of Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.

Sir Keir Starmer voted in favour, while Deputy PM Angela Rayner, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood voted against.

The Conservatives were also split, with leader Kemi Badenoch voting in favour and former PM Rishi Sunak against. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also voted against the bill.

The PM, who is attending a summit in Albania, will be absent this time, but asked for his current opinion, told reporters: “My views have been consistent throughout.”

No fewer than 44 of the new amendments have been tabled by Ms Leadbeater herself, with government backing, a move that has been criticised by opponents of the bill.

Opponents also claim some wavering MPs are preparing to switch from voting in favour or abstaining to voting against and it only needs 28 supporters to change their mind to kill the bill.

Confirmed switchers from voting in favour to against include Tory MPs George Freeman and Andrew Snowden, Reform UK chief whip Lee Anderson and ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe.

Labour MP Debbie Abrahams and Tory MP Charlie Dewhirst, who abstained previously, are now against and Labour’s Karl Turner, who voted in favour at second reading, is now abstaining.

Mr Turner, a former barrister, told Sky News that an amendment to replace a high court judge with a panel of experts “weakens the bill” by removing judicial safeguards.

But in a boost for the bill’s supporters, Reform UK’s Runcorn and Helsby by-election winner Sarah Pochin, a former magistrate, announced she would vote in favour. Her predecessor, Labour’s Mike Amesbury, voted against.

“There are enough checks and balances in place within the legislation – with a panel of experts assessing each application to have an assisted death, made up of a senior lawyer, psychiatrist, and social worker,” said Ms Pochin, who is now the only Reform UK MP supporting the bill.

A Labour MP, Jack Abbott, who voted against in November, told Sky News he was now “more than likely” to vote for the bill, which was now in a much stronger position, he said.

Ms Leadbeater’s supporters strongly deny that the bill is at risk of collapse and are accusing its opponents of “unsubstantiated claims” and of “scare stories” that misrepresent what the bill proposes.

“There is a pretty transparent attempt by opponents of the bill to try to convince MPs that there’s a big shift away from support when that simply isn’t true,” an ally of Ms Leadbeater told Sky News.

Speaking in an LBC radio phone-in on the eve of the debate on the amendments, Ms Leadbeater said she understood her bill was “an emotive issue” and there was “a lot of passion about this subject”.

But she said: “I would be prepared to be involved in a compassionate end to someone’s life if that was of their choosing. And it’s always about choice. I have friends and family who are very clear that they would want this option for themselves.

“There is overwhelming public support for a change in the law and literally everywhere I go people will stop me and say thank you for putting this forward. I would want this choice.”

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Also ahead of the debate, health minister Stephen Kinnock and justice minister Sarah Sackman wrote to all MPs defending the government’s involvement in Ms Leadbeater’s amendments to her bill.

“The government remains neutral on the passage of the bill and on the principle of assisted dying, which we have always been clear is a decision for parliament,” they wrote.

“Government has a responsibility to ensure any legislation that passes through parliament is workable, effective and enforceable.

“As such, we have provided technical, drafting support to enable the sponsor to table amendments throughout the bill’s passage. We have advised the sponsor on amendments which we deem essential or highly likely to contribute to the workability of the bill.”

A 21-year-old man has been charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life after fires at two properties and a car linked to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Roman Lavrynovych, 21, a Ukrainian national from Sydenham, southeast London, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday, the Metropolitan Police said.

The force said officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command led the investigation because of the connections to the prime minister.

Emergency services were called to a fire in the early hours of Monday at a house in Kentish Town, north London, where Sir Keir lived with his family before becoming prime minister.

Damage was caused to the property’s entrance but nobody was hurt.

A car was also set alight in the same street last Thursday.

There was another blaze at the front door of a house converted into flats in Islington, also linked to the prime minister, on Sunday.

One person was taken to safety via an internal staircase by crews wearing breathing apparatus, London Fire Brigade said.

The head of the Crown Prosecution Service counter terrorism division, Bethan David, said: “These charges relate to two fires at residential addresses in Islington on Sunday May 11 and in Kentish Town on Monday May 12, as well as a car fire in Kentish Town on Thursday May 8.

“The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against this defendant are now active and that he has the right to a fair trial.”