An army Warrant Officer has refused to answer questions over the death of a teenage soldier who is believed to have taken her own life.
Gunner Jaysley Beck, 19, was found dead on December 15, 2021, at Lark Hill.
Months before her death, she accused her superiors of possessive and creepy behaviour in the run-up to her death, naming Michael Webber, who was a Battery Sergeant Major at the time.
She claimed that he told her he had been ‘waiting for a moment for them to be alone’. She said he then played a drinking game called Last Man Standing before grabbing her leg and trying to kiss her.
Jaysley pushed him away then called a friend before locking herself in the car. The following morning she complained about what had happened to her superiors.
However, after being sworn in to give evidence, Webber was asked a series of questions that he refused to answer.
Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg asked: ‘Over your time at Thorney Island [where Jaysley was on a five-day training course], did you encounter Gunner Beck?’
He declined to answer but confirmed he had written an apology to Jaysley.
The coroner asked: ‘You will see in the letter you describe your behaviour as “absolutely unacceptable” – what was your behaviour.’
Webber responded: ‘Decline to answer.’
He was asked whether he was drunk, if he put his hand on Jaysley’s leg, pinned her down while trying to kiss her, and whether he was ordered to leave the island by Colonel Samantha Shepherd.
Each time he responded: ‘Decline to answer’
After his evidence, Webber said that he intends to leave the Army later this year.
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Major Richard Lupton told the inquest that Ms Beck was ‘the epitome of who you would want in the Army’ and described how he had been informed of the incident on Thorney Island.
He said: ‘She was calm. She read the letter. I asked if she was happy if she was okay about it. She said yes. I would have said some words of encouragement.’
Another witness, Major Robert Ronz, told the inquest that a formal record stated Webber had committed ‘inappropriate behaviour unbecoming of a Warrant Officer’ but contained no details of the incident.
Previously, the inquest heard Jaysley received thousands of messages from another senior colleague, Bombardier Ryan Mason, whom she described as being ‘psychotic and possessive’.
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