Family hopes for justice from fresh inquest into death of servicewoman

Sister pleads for answers over Corporal Anne-Marie Ellement, who was found dead in barracks weeks after rape allegation

Their motto reads “Exemplo ducemus” – Latin for “by example, shall we lead”. But this week the Royal Military Police will find that claim placed under considerable scrutiny as its senior figures are accused of setting an example no one would want to follow.

On 9 October 2011, Corporal Anne-Marie Ellement of the RMP was found hanging from a fire escape outside her barracks near Salisbury, Wiltshire. Weeks earlier the 30-year-old had reported being raped by two RMP colleagues. No charges were brought against the alleged perpetrators. The regiment’s response to her allegations, Ellement claimed, had left her feeling ostracised and alone. Her family alleges that she suffered “rape-related bullying” after making them. In effect, the RMP had led an investigation into the RMP, and prosecutors decided not to pursue charges. When the RMP later reviewed its inquiry into the case, it found nothing untoward. But when Ellement’s family sought a judicial review, a new inquest was agreed. A fresh probe involving civilian police is also in progress.

As Ellement’s family awaits that inquest, which will open tomorrow, her sister Sharon Hardy, 44, from Christchurch, Dorset, wants a proper answer to the question that has tormented her for more than two years: “Why did a 30-year-old woman who had joined up happy and confident, with all her hopes and dreams, end up five years later swinging from a fire escape in the headquarters of the RMP?”

The inquest will last three weeks, and campaigners anticipate that the RMP’s alleged failings will be seen as indicative of a wider culture of silence in the military over the extent of rape and sexual assaults, and an attendant failure in its duty of care.

In 2006 an independent report commissioned by the Ministry of Defence, and based on a survey of 9,000 British servicewomen, found that more than two-thirds said they had experienced behaviour ranging from sexual assaults to unwelcome comments. Such findings, say campaigners, ought to have provided a platform for a more exhaustive examination of a possible “rape culture” in the UK military. That never happened. In fact, the MoD has steadfastly refused to commission new research on sexual harassment in the military. The result is that the scale and gravity of sexual offences, including rape, remains unknown.

Existing figures are confusing. One parliamentary answer, from August 2012, stated that between 2010 and mid-2012 there were 53 reported rapes in the military, compared with Service Justice Board figures of 268 for the comparable period. There is still no central record of the overall number of sexual offences involving armed forces personnel.

Lisa Longstaff, of the campaign group Women Against Rape, says official figures chronically underplay the issue, observing that for each victim who comes forward they know of at least another six who were too afraid to go public. Hardy herself learned of other cases while investigating the events leading …read more