The handling of sexual offences in the Service Justice System – the British Armed Forces’ own justice system – is still not delivering justice to victims. This is despite controversy after controversy, MP debates in parliament and rape survivors speaking out about the abuse they’ve suffered inside the military.
Earlier this month, openDemocracy reported on how the military denied justice to Jessica* for more than 20 years after she reported having been abused while growing up on a British Army base in Germany. An appeal hearing last week refused to increase the four-year sentence (half of which will be served out of prison on licence) that her abuser, Martin Roberts, received at a military court earlier this year.
The Centre for Military Justice was set up in 2019 and we’ve seen harrowing cases and predators walking free, time and again; women reporting assault describe finding themselves the focus of the military police’s investigative attention, rather than the alleged perpetrators; serious delays in military police investigations; sexual offences downgraded to “misconduct through alcohol” offences; and serious failings in victim support.
