A former British army sergeant major has been sentenced to six months in prison at the court martial centre in Bulford for sexually assaulting Jaysley Beck, a teenage soldier who killed herself after senior officers failed to investigate the attack properly.

Michael Webber, who has left the army, assaulted Gunner Beck during a training exercise in Hampshire in July 2021, when she was 19.

She reported what had happened to her seniors but the police were not informed and Beck was encouraged to accept a letter of apology from Webber.

Later that year Beck did not report that another man, her line manager, was bombarding her with texts and voice messages, apparently having lost faith in the complaints procedure, an inquest heard.

Beck, from Cumbria, took her own life in her room at Larkhill Camp, Wiltshire, in December 2021, five months after Webber’s assault.