Undated family handout photo of Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck. Warrant Officer Michael Webber (Image: PA)
A devastated mother has warned the British Army is “not safe for girls” after a former senior officer was jailed for just 12 weeks for sexually assaulting her teenage daughter who subsequently took her own life. Warrant Officer Michael Webber, 43, will serve only half a six month sentence behind bars for his attack on Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck, 19, during a training expedition to Thorney Island, near Emsworth in Hampshire, in July 2021.
Divorced father-of-one Webber admitted the assault which took place after he engaged Gunner Beck in a drinking game called Last Man Standing before touching her thigh and trying to kiss her. Gunner Beck pushed Webber, then a 39-year-old battery sergeant major, away and spent the night locked in her car before making a complaint to her superiors in the morning. However, the incident was not reported to police and the sex pest wrote a letter of apology to Gunner Beck, from Cumbria, before being promoted.
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His victim was found hanged in her room at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire five months later on December 15 2021.
The disgraced officer appeared before Bulford Military Court Centre yesterday (Fri) to be sentenced by Judge Advocate General Alan Large and a military board.
Following his jailing Jaysley’s mother Leighann McCready said: “The Army is clearly not a safe space for young women. Until real change is made I would say that young women should not join the army.”
Mrs McCready accused army chiefs of protecting Webber by “marking their own homework” and said her daughter should have been in court to see the person she reported held accountable for what he did.
She added: “Instead, we stand here without her, living a life sentence that no family should ever have to face.
Mum Leighann McCready and Jaysley (Image: -)
He added: “We are sorry we didn’t listen to Jaysley when she first reported her assault. We are determined to make sure the same mistakes don’t happen again.”
Commodore James Farrant, prosecuting, told the military court how Webber and Gunner Beck had been away for adventure training and were the last two remaining soldiers in the bar when Webber told the teenager she was “beautiful”.
He said: “He put his hand on the back of her head in order to kiss her and he also touched her thigh. She asked him to stop and told him that he should go to bed.
“However, he continued to the extent that Gunner Beck feared she would not be safe from him if she went to her accommodation.”
The court heard Gunner Beck first hid in the toilets, standing on top of a toilet seat so Webber would not see where she was, before locking herself in her car overnight.
Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck (Image: PA)
Major General Jon Swift, Assiatant Chief of the General Staff, speaks to the media outside Bulford C (Image: PA)
Leighann McCready, mother of Jaysley Beck, speaks to the media outside Bulford Court Martial Centre (Image: PA)
A undated handout picture released by the family of Jaysley Beck through the Centre for Military Jus (Image: Centre For Military Justice/AFP)
A undated handout picture released by the family of Jaysley Beck through the Centre for Military Jus (Image: Centre For Military Justice/AFP)
“What he did, and how the Army failed to protect our daughter afterwards, cost Jaysley her life. Jaysley was just 19, a beautiful, bright, confident girl with her whole life ahead of her. She did everything right but was failed by the system that was meant to support and protect her.
“She followed the rules, but those responsible didn’t follow theirs. They failed to act, failed to report, and failed to follow up.
“Those failures destroyed our daughter completely.”
At the conclusion of her inquest in February 2025, Assistant Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg ruled the Army’s failure to take appropriate action made a “more than minimal” contribution to her death.
Major General Jon Swift, Assistant Chief of the General Staff, said the Army will “always be profoundly sorry for the failings.”
Gunner Beck revealed she felt “genuinely trapped” (Image: -)
She reported the incident the following day and Webber was dealt with by a minor administrative action – involving him being interviewed and writing Gunner Beck a letter of apology.
Commodore Farrant said: “It meant no police investigation could take place.”
He added that a service inquiry later found Gunner Beck had been subjected to a “number of inappropriate behaviours by personnel senior to her in the months before her death”.
During her inquest, it emerged she had been bombarded with thousands of messages from Bombardier Ryan Mason, but decided it was pointless complaining after her previous experience and she didn’t want to be viewed as “a troublemaker”
Wiltshire Police investigated a complaint of harassment submitted by Gunner Beck’s family after her death, relating to Mr Mason’s behaviour, but found the evidence did not support a criminal harassment case. The force also declined to refer Webber’s attack to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Following Gunner Beck’s inquest, Wiltshire Police transferred jurisdiction of the case to the Defence Serious Crime Unit and the Service Prosecuting Agency charged Webber with sexual assault in August, to which he pleaded guilty last month.
Undated family handout photo issued by the Centre for Military Justice of Royal Artillery Gunner Jay (Image: PA)
The court heard Webber, who has an estranged teenage daughter, served in the Army for 22 years and 128 days before leaving in August this year. He now works as a lorry driver.
Representing Webber, Matthew Scott said his client was “devastated” by what happened to Miss Beck.
He added that Webber, who receives £1,200 per month from a military pension, had an “exemplary military record” and described the incident as “out of character”.