Navy

Senior Marines Spared Jail After Failing To Stop Assaults

Four senior marines have been spared jail after failing to stop junior ranks assaulting each other during an initiation-style ceremony.

Sergeants Richard Melia and Ian Spence, and Corporals Robert Wake and John Arnett each pleaded guilty to four counts of failing to perform in their public duty, on October 28 2014.

They were sentenced to a four-month prison sentence suspended for a year. Wake and Melia were also punished to dismissal from the services while Spence and Arnett, previously of the Lympstone commando training centre in Exmouth, Devon, have already left the forces.

Lympstone Commando Training Centre in Exmouth, Devon, is the main training centre for the Royal Marines (library image)

The court martial in Portsmouth heard the four men failed without reasonable excuse to stop a number of junior marines assaulting each other during celebrations of the Royal Marine Corps' 350th anniversary.

Judge Advocate Robert Hill was quoted by the Metro newspaper as telling the court martial at Portsmouth Naval Base:

"It needs to be understood this type of behaviour will be dealt with by the court martial for what it is, it's a calculated course of conduct designed to inflict gratuitous violence on new joiners.

"You failed, each of you, to stop it, it was your duty as an NCO [non-commissioned officer] to stop it. With rank comes responsibility and in this case you failed to discharge your responsibility."

The assaults, carried out by others not involved in the court hearing, included "reefing", where marines are struck with a belt or strap on bare skin, often on the bottom.

In this instance, a two-foot gel keyboard wrist support nicknamed 'Big Red' was used to strike each other's bare backsides.

Spence, who was medically discharged from the military in July, also pleaded guilty to ill-treatment of a subordinate after he poured vodka in one junior colleague's wound. He was given no separate penalty for this offence.

The court heard that the four defendants 'encouraged' the activities which left four marines with cuts and bruising to their rear ends, leading to them struggling to sit down or lie on their backs for two weeks.

The reefing was used as a punishment if the marines were unsuccessful in a challenge to tell a story or sing a song to entertain the others.

Lieutenant Colonel Victoria Phillips, prosecuting, explained that the number of blows would be determined by the throw of a dice but if the participant shouted out 'beef reef' he would receive another hit and would also be permitted to hit the person administering the blows with Big Red.